Is cannabis legal in Italy?

Italy’s estimated medical market size for 2024 is over €49 million.

The Italian government maintains tight control of the country’s medical cannabis market, controlling supply and distribution. The government itself imports from one supplier under a supply agreement, renewing the agreement or changing the supplier every few years. Direct imports of flower products by hospitals in the country are only permitted from Bedrocan in the Netherlands, while a small number of extract products are also permitted to be imported from other suppliers.

The only production which takes place in the country is cultivation, and is also government controlled. This is undertaken by the military, which grows approximately 100kg of one proprietary strain, FM2.

Tight governmental control combined with a lack of regulatory development in the medical cannabis industry over the last number of years has resulted in a lack of market development in Italy. The situation in terms of patient access, prescribing procedures, treatment variety, resources available for doctors etc. has not changed over this time.