Italy is expected to decide whether to criminalize cannabis in a referendum next year, after several activist groups managed to collect the 500,000 signatures needed to do so.
Referendums in Italy can be held if 500,000 signatures are secured, while this has become possible before the September 30 deadline to collect them.
If the Italian people vote to decriminalize cannabis, the purchase, sale and cultivation of this type of drug will be allowed under Italian law.
“More than 500,000 online signatures have been secured in just one week for the cannabis referendum,” the activists wrote on their Facebook account.
Consumption of cannabis is not a crime under Italian law, while marijuana is also allowed for medicinal purposes. However, buying, selling and mass cultivation of cannabis is illegal and under the law, dealers can face up to 10 years in prison if caught.
“If cannabis were legal, it would end unnecessary trials for small amounts of the drug, and ensure that patients who use it to relieve their excruciating pain never have to face more with the courts”, added the activists.
According to them, the legalization of cannabis would generate thousands of new jobs and increase tax revenues for the state.
Although Italy decriminalized the recreational use of cannabis in 1993, in 2006 a law imposed penalties for users as well as prison terms for its growers and sellers.
Activists of the cannabis decriminalization initiative have said that in Italy there are 6 million users of this drug.
