Illegal CBD: is CBD legal in Italy?

On September 11, 2024, the Lazio TAR suspended the decree of July 6, 2024. With this ruling, the administrative judges accepted the appeal filed by the association Imprenditori Canapa Italia (ICI), setting the next hearing for December 16, 2024. The ruling is still pending, and in the meantime, in September 2024, the government presented an amendment to the Senate that aimed to make hemp illegal, banning the cultivation and sale of flowers and derivatives.

So, the ICI association had also positively commented on the court's decision to suspend the decree, stating that the judging panel had acknowledged the validity of the arguments and once again highlighting the serious economic and social risks that the implementation of the decree could have caused.

This suspension has represented a great victory for the hemp and CBD sector, and it was significant to note that even the judges highlighted the potential harmful consequences for farmers, entrepreneurs, and all workers involved in the hemp sector. Fortunately, the judicial suspension order aims to protect CBD sellers and all workers in the supply chain during the development of the process.

Usually, the precautionary suspension is not granted unless the judges have the feeling that there is some validity in the reasons for the appeal. And it is not the first time that the Tar has intervened in favor of the supply chain.

Below is a brief overview tracing the legal history of CBD in Italy.

CBD in Italy from 2020 to 2025

• In 2020, Minister Roberto Speranza issued a decree (October 1, 2020) to include orally used CBD in the list of medicines derived from narcotic substances. On October 28 of the same year, following numerous protests from citizens, manufacturing companies, and associations that use Cannabis for therapeutic purposes, and probably also due to an awareness of the economic damage to Italy, Speranza signed a new decree that suspended the first one and temporarily protected CBD from being classified as a narcotic substance.

• Three years later, on August 7, 2023, the Minister of Health Schillaci signs a decree which in turn revokes the previous suspension decree by Speranza. Therefore, from September 20, 2023,  “the compositions for oral administration of cannabidiol” will be included in the table of medicines derived from narcotics, which is attached to the Consolidated Text on Narcotics

• As communicated by Hemp Entrepreneurs Italy, after the appeal filed by the association to the Lazio TAR on 10/3/23, the Judging Panel has provisionally suspended the application of the Decree of August 7, 2023, which came into force on September 20, 2023

• The suspension of the decree was effective until the date of the Judges' Panel Chamber Meeting, set for 10/24/2023. On 10/24/2023, the Court decided to keep the decree suspended until the issuance of the judgment, scheduled for 01/16/2024.

• July 6, 2024: the Ministry of Health issues a new decree which is published in the Official Gazette and places oral CBD-based products in section B of the medicines table related to narcotic and psychotropic substances. This decision ignores the ruling of the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR) which had suspended the previous 2023 Decree with identical content. Furthermore, it does not take into account the scientific evidence in favor of CBD and even cites the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) despite it urging EU countries not to include CBD in any medicines and/or narcotics tables

• September 11, 2024: the Lazio Regional Administrative Court suspends the decree again and sets a new hearing for December 16, 2024

• September 18, 2024: the amendment to the security bill that provides for making light cannabis (hemp) illegal in Italy, banning both the cultivation and the sale of the flowers, arrives in the Senate.

• April 4, 2025: the government transforms the bill into a decree, which is approved by the council of ministers. The approved text amends law 242/2016 and in fact limits the production of inflorescences containing CBD. Production, processing, distribution, and consumption of the inflorescences are equated with traditional drugs high in THC. The supply chain is preparing to be razed to the ground.

Looking closely at the data, it seems that Italy is going completely off track compared to European guidelines, without worrying about putting an entire sector at risk and causing economic and employment damage.

What are the weaknesses of the decree on CBD?

Here are some of the weaknesses of the CBD decree, which now appears every year like a birthday:

• The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs does not consider Cannabidiol (CBD) a narcotic substance
  
  
• The World Health Organization specifies that it is not a substance to be controlled because it does not cause harm or addiction
  
  
• The Italian position is in contrast with the positions of the French, English, and German authorities, who have excluded the inclusion of CBD in the national lists of narcotic substances.
  
  
• The Italian position is in contrast with EU regulations and case law, which by their nature take precedence over Italian laws. As established in 2020 by Court of Justice of the European Union, cannabidiol cannot be considered a narcotic substance and therefore "a Member State cannot prohibit the marketing of cannabidiol (CBD) legally produced in another Member State, provided it is extracted from the entire Cannabis sativa plant and not just from its fibers and seeds"
  
  
• The decree refers to "compositions for oral administration of cannabidiol." So, for now, inhaled CBD will likely continue to circulate freely. This distraction highlights that the basis of the decree is not a desire to avoid a potential health risk for consumers, but another type of interest.
  
  
• The decree is in contradiction with the Italian legislation itself, and in particular with Law 242/2016, which allows the cultivation of hemp varieties to obtain, among various products, also food products.
  
  
• The decree is ambiguous in many of its parts. For example, it does not clarify whether the ban concerns oral use products that contain CBD in part or exclusively products composed solely of CBD as an isolated substance.

But so...