Italy’s Supreme Court has ruled that prosecutors cannot automatically confiscate hemp flowers under the country’s ongoing ban without proving the products are capable of producing an intoxicating effect.
The latest in a series of court decisions narrowing the practical reach of the law, the ruling adds momentum to constitutional and European legal challenges that continue to cast uncertainty over Italy’s hemp flower market.
The Fourth Criminal Section of the Supreme Court, in July judgment No. 25539/2026, overturned a lower court decision that had refused to return seized hemp products even after prosecutors’ own expert concluded the material lacked intoxicating capacity. The court held that a criminal offense does not have to be proven before products may be confiscated.
Meloni’s war
The decision builds on a series of rulings since Italy enacted the ban (Article 18 of Decree-Law 48/2025), which removed hemp flowers and their derivatives from the protections of the country’s industrial hemp law and subjected many commercial activities to narcotics legislation.
It comes against the backdrop of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government’s two-year effort to eliminate Italy’s low-THC hemp flower market. After first proposing a ban in a sweeping security bill in late 2024. Italy invoked the ban in April 2025 despite warnings from producers that the measure could effectively eliminate the country’s low-THC hemp flower sector by treating flowers and many derivatives as narcotics. The move has triggered legal challenges from producers, farmers and trade groups, who argue the restrictions conflict with both Italy’s Constitution and European Union law.
Courts have increasingly required prosecutors to demonstrate that seized products are actually capable of producing psychotropic effects rather than relying solely on their botanical origin.
Challenges pending
According to hemp trade association Canapa Sativa Italia (CSI), courts have now ordered the return of hemp flowers, plants, cultivated fields and various products in 18 proceedings, including at least 730 kilograms of seized hemp flowers.
The latest ruling comes as the ban continues to face scrutiny. Three Italian judges have referred constitutional questions over Article 18 to Italy’s Constitutional Court, while a separate case before the Court of Justice of the European Union will determine whether Italy’s restrictions on hemp flowers are compatible with EU law governing hemp varieties approved under the Common Agricultural Policy. A public hearing in one of the constitutional challenges is scheduled for Oct. 21.