Italy ti fumo di cannabis?

I have been enjoying learning & bloging about the cannabis culture of different countries around the globe, today I will explore Italy. My first search was Google images where I found this uber cool Italian cannabis flag.





Italy is where the 100% natural perfume Hemp essence was created and is being
manufactured.

Hemp essential oil is produced exclusively from the flowers of female or hermaphrodite plants by low-pressure steam distillation and it requires 50lbs of flowers to produce 20ml (1oz) of pure oil.
Hemp essence is a recent addition to the "palette" of aromatherapists. Its solar scent is a vibrating song of happiness and trust, it has demonstrated to be able to reduce emotional tensions, having a comforting and balancing effect.It is also able to provoke a greater sensory consciousness and is useful to stimulate working concentration.

LINK




In Feb of 2006 Silvio Berlusconi's Administration enacts strict laws against cannabis, then they lose the next election in April.

June 27, 2006

Italy relaxes cannabis laws

From Richard Owen in Rome

Boosted by its overwhelming victory in the referendum on devolution yesterday, the centre-left Government of Romano Prodi has moved to dismantle yet another legacy of the Berlusconi era by overturning its “zero tolerance” drugs policy.

LINK


One can only wonder if this change in political parties was brought about by a public that was angered by February's harsh changes to Italy's cannabis laws.





Next I find this nug of interest.

Rastas can use cannabis, Italian court rules

By Peter Popham in Rome

Saturday, 12 July 2008

Rastafarians have always regarded Ethiopia as the promised land, but Italy could rank a close second after its Supreme Court ruled that smoking or possessing cannabis is not a criminal offence but a religious act when the person doing it is a Rastafarian.
the verdict was received with joy at Rototom Sunsplash, Europe's biggest festival of reggae music, near Udine, in north-east Italy. "Finally the principle of religious pluralism is beginning to make headway," Filippo Giunta, president of the festival, said. "This judgment ... underlines again the difference between this substance and so-called 'hard' drugs, alcohol included."

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I think this article is a nice way to finish today's blog.

The "War on Drugs" has Failed

Conrad Black
October 31st, 2010
FrumForum News


Extensive U.S. federal-government research indicates that the $1.4 billion National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign has been completely ineffective and may even have incited increased drug use by needlessly publicizing it. Given the abundant evidence of the ineffectuality of efforts to restrict and reduce cannabis use, it is astonishing that there has been so little public discussion in the U.S. of alternative policy courses. The Netherlands, which has effectively legalized cannabis use, has roughly half the incidence of per capita use as the U.S. And the U.S. has approximately four times the per capita level of cocaine use of a broad selection of countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Spain, Israel, Lebanon, South Africa, China, Japan, Mexico, and Colombia. Differing regimes of cannabis decriminalization have been instituted by Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Portugal, which latter country, even nine years after decriminalization, has among the lowest cannabis-use levels in the European Union. There is a great range of policy options available, and observable in other countries, including restricting places of use, registering and rationing, increasing emphasis on treatment methods, and separating medical (use) from criminal (distribution outside official channels) aspects.

LINK


Free Cannabis,
End Prohibition Now!