Business of Cannabis reports
Last week, Italy’s Regional Administrative Court of Lazio (TAR) confirmed its position, ruling in favour of suspending a decree that would make CBD oil a narcotic substance until January 16, 2024.
In early October, Business of Cannabis reported that the TAR of Lazio, the same regional court responsible for overturning a similar decree making hemp flower a narcotic in February, had suspended the decree until October 24.
This initial suspension has now been extended by nearly three months, with a new hearing to consider the decree’s merits pencilled in for mid-January, following the submission of an appeal by the Ministry of Health.
New evidence is now understood to have been put forward by the Ministry of Health, the Italian Medicines Agency, Istituto Superiore di Sanità and the Superior Council of Health ahead of the hearing.
According to the TAR of Lazio, there are no ‘established concrete dangers of inducing physical or mental dependence’ from CBD and there ‘does not appear to be, as things stand, any imminent risks for the protection of public health’.
It continued that this means ‘the conditions exist for suspending the contested measure, with the decision on the merits to be made shortly, due to the relevance of the matter, at the first public hearing available in the section’s calendar’.
Campaign groups responsible for having the bill suspended initially, including Federcanapa, said they hope January’s hearing will deliver a final ruling ‘so that the sector can have more freedom in the year ahead’.
