Rome (AFP) - Italian lawmakers began discussing a proposal Monday to authorise the recreational use and growing of cannabis -- a highly inflammatory topic, with the government declining to take sides.
If the bill becomes law, people will be allowed to grow up to five cannabis plants for personal use and keep up to 15 grammes (0.52 ounces) of marijuana at home and five grammes on their person.
It would still be illegal for people to buy or sell weed or smoke marijuana in public, but the Italian state could start issuing licenses allowing the drug to be grown and sold in a similar way to tobacco.
Several European countries, as well as a number of US states, have legalised marijuana in recent years, both for medical and recreational use.
Proponents of this approach argue that decades of international prohibition have manifestly failed to halt the worldwide spread of cannabis consumption.
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