ROME, June 29 (UPI) -- If you live in Italy, you can legally grow pot from balconies and terraces, the country's highest court ruled.

Doing so "could cause no harm," the Cassation Court concluded.


The high court rejected an appeal from Catanzaro Court of Appeals prosecutors of the not-guilty verdict in the case of a 23-year-old man charged with growing a single marijuana plant in a vase on a balcony in Calabria, ANSA reported. The plant could have produced about a half-ounce of the weed, the news agency said.

The ruling is especially noteworthy, given that it comes from the Cassation Court, where narcotics cultivation had always required punishment.

Italy's highest court seemed to soften its stance in 2009, ruling citizens could grow marijuana as long as it didn't get big enough to harvest.