Rome, Italy: Italians may grow personal use amounts of cannabis at home without penalty, according to a determination by the nation’s supreme court.
Justices opined that "at home, small-scale cultivation activities are to be considered excluded from the application of the penal code." The defendant in the case was cultivating two marijuana plants.
The ruling is similar to a decision made by South Africa’s top court in 2018 when justices concluded that it is not "a criminal offense for an adult to use or be in possession of cannabis in private for his or her personal consumption." More recently, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that laws criminalizing the private use and cultivation of cannabis by adults are unconstitutional.
For more information, contact Keith Stroup, NORML Legal Counsel, at (202) 483-5500.