in italy...vegging cannabis now legal...flowering cannabis plants still illegal

[c-ray]

from http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnp...114319935.html

Quote:

2009-01-14 18:49
Top court in marijuana flap
'OK to grow plants before they develop drug'

(ANSA) - Rome, January 14 - Italy's top court caused a flap on Wednesday when it said it was OK to grow marijuana as long as people didn't let it get big enough to have any of the drug in it yet.

Overturning the conviction of a Marche man caught with 23 small plants in 2003, the Cassation Court said police should only step in when there was a concrete threat.

Politicians pounced on the verdict, with Isabella Bertolini of the ruling People of Freedom (PdL) party saying: ''The Cassation judges really seem to be living on another planet. The next thing they'll do is have the police take gardening courses to be sure of intervening when the plant is getting dangerous''.

PdL Senate whip Maurizio Gasparri said: ''They've got to be kidding. Who knows, someday they might grow up themselves''. Italy's drug addiction service FERD said: ''What's the difference if there isn't an active ingredient in the plant yet? It's still marijuana, and growing it is illegal''. Monday's ruling was a turnaround from a recent verdict in which the Cassation Court said growing marijuana was always a crime, even if they were just small house plants.

The court, whose rulings set precedents, has taken a string of apparently contradictory stances on marijuana growing in recent years.