The Italian military, in a high-security lab in a military compound in Florence, is growing cannabis to bring safe, legal and affordable marijuana to patients suffering from chronic pain and other health conditions such as multiple sclerosis, cancer, and glaucoma. The Florence military pharmaceutical facility, was chosen to set up the cannabis farm because it already had the necessary facilities and could guarantee security due to its surveillance system.

Italy legalized marijuana for medical use in 2013. Although doctors were allowed to prescribe the drug, cultivation of the drug remained illegal, forcing the country to import 100 pounds of marijuana from the Netherlands each year at the outrageous rate of 35 Euros per gram. The high cost of buying legal pot in a pharmacy meant only 12 patients signed up.

“We expect to make this drug available by the end of this year in a quantity of about 220 lbs, which is double the amount that we are currently importing from the Netherlands,” said General Giocondo Santoni, director of the Florence military pharmaceutical facility.

“The aim of this operation is to make available to a growing number of patients a medical product which isn’t always readily available on the market, at a much better price for the user. We’re aiming to lower the price to under 15 Euros, maybe even around 5 Euros per gram,” Colonel Antonio Medica, who is overseeing the project, told the Corriere della Sera website.

Laws against marijuana in Italy are severe, selling or growing the plant is considered a crime and can lead to imprisonment. Since there are no licensed producers, and the state does not pay for the treatment, many patients have been buying their drugs off the street. This method is ultimately financing the country’s drug dealers, who do not pay taxes, and are also often engaged in other illegal activities. By producing its own weed, the government hopes to undercut the street dealers.

In a effort to undermine the illegal marijuana market in a country where one in five admitted to being smokers of the drug in a survey conducted in 2012, the Intergruppo Parlamentare Cannabis Legale recently provided a proposal for legislation that would largely decriminalize production, distribution, sale and consumption of marijuana throughout the country.

More than 250 lawmakers have given their support to the proposal. If passed, the legislation would allow anyone over the age of 18 to cultivate 5 plants at home. Italians could also team up to form a “cannabis social club,” with each having a maximum of 50 people growing as many as 250 plants. However, the pot would have to be consumed or shared by the farmers. All other individuals would be allowed to store as much as 15 grams of marijuana at home and carry as much as 5 grams, with higher quantities being allowed for medical use.

Larger-scale production and sale would be controlled by a state monopoly, with the government regulating the sale of licenses. Retail sales would be restricted to dedicated stores, similar to the cannabis coffee shops in the Netherlands.

The proposal faces hurdles from critics like Senator Carlo Giovanardi, an outspoken Catholic anti-drug campaigner, who says that Italy wants to make sure that “curing sick people does not become an excuse to expand the use of the substance,” and that legalization would lead to “a society of zombies.”

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