Source: Newsweed
The legal battle in Italy around hemp flowers and light cannabis continues to intensify, with two regional administrative courts issuing decisions that further weaken the government’s “security decree”.
While judges are increasingly reluctant to automatically apply l’prohibition introduced by article 18, several municipalities, under the leadership of mayors from both the right and the left, continue to order traders to close shop.
These latest judgments come on top of a growing series of judicial decisions calling into question the practical application of the decree, even though the future of the Italian hemp industry now depends largely on the next decisions of the Constitutional Court and there Court of Justice of the European Union.
A Ligurian court suspends a closure order in Ventimiglia
The june 11, the Regional Administrative Court (TAR) of Liguria suspended an order issued by the municipality of Ventimiglia requiring a retailer to stop selling hemp flowers and derivative products via vending machines.
The municipality had ordered the closure on March 10, arguing that Article 18 of safety decree was of immediate application and justified the ban without it being necessary to assess whether the products produced psychoactive effects. Authorities said the measure was necessary to protect public order.
The judges did not follow this argument and decided to suspend the order pending examination of the merits of the case. According to the court, the immediate application of the closure could cause the company “serious and irreparable harm”, likely to lead it to bankruptcy.
The lawyer Lorenzo Simonetti, who represented the trader, said the decision reflected a broader legal principle arising from criminal case law.
“The implicit reason for this suspension is above all another: concrete proof of the psychoactive effects is required to prohibit the sale of “light cannabis”, as criminal case law demonstrates. “
Mr Simonetti also described the ruling as the first decision by an administrative court relying on both administrative and criminal case law to support the legality of retail sales.
Case in Lombardy suspended pending decisions from higher courts
A similar dispute took place at Nova Milanese, in Lombardy. There, the municipality also ordered a retailer to hemp to cease its activities under the safety decree, threatening to seal the premises.
Unlike Ventimiglia’s case, however, the owner of the establishment decided to close his store before the court ruled on the appeal.
The June 17, the Regional Administrative Court of Lombardy suspended the procedure, deciding to wait for guidance from the Court of Justice of the European Union or there Italian Constitutional Court before rendering a final judgment.
A crucial hearing before the Constitutional Court is planned for October 21, 2026, a date which should play a decisive role in determining the future legal status of hemp flowers in Italy.
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