“Tuscany makes an exception: ‘therapeutic’ cannabis endorsed”: this was the headline under which Italy’s bishops conference daily Avvenire on 1 May 2012, ran a full page with a series of reports on the bill legalising the so called “medical marijuana” under discussion in the Tuscany regional council.
The council passed the bill the following day and was the first legislative body to do so in Italy.
In these reports Avvenire took up the theses a lay organisation for the promotion of the social teaching of the Church, Centro Culturale Lepanto, featured in a petition-document which had appeared as a paid ad in the very newspaper on 19 April 2012 under the title: “Regional Councils poised to legalise marijuana: compassion or ideology?”.
All this is happening, the document points out, despite the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) reminds that "no serious scientific study" endorses the medical use of marijuana/cannabis, that "smoking marijuana has no established or proved medical benefit", that smoking it “is harmful to health" and that" it is not admitted as medical treatment ".
Moreover, the document goes on, “the verdict of the FDA is shared by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the scientific evaluation of medicines in Europe” and also “the Italian Drug Agency (AIFA) has never authorized the production or marketing of cannabis/marijuana”.
And no medicine can be marketed in Italy without having been first endorsed by AIFA or the EU under its EC Regulation No 726/2004.
Furthermore, “the sale of marijuana/cannabis is a clear violation of UN conventions against narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, to whom Italy is co-signatory” and an infringement to “the Convention on the Rights of the Child” whose art. 33 recognizes children’s right to be protected "from the illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances”, not to have them upgraded to beneficial medicine by political parties and ideological movements, and made available for free in a pharmacy.
The Centro Culturale Lepanto petition, personally signed by its President Fabio Bernabei, is also aimed at collecting signatures and thus seeking to stop “regional bills providing for the unlimited sale of Marijuana also to minors in pharmacies with a simple prescription”.
Tuscany appears to be but the first stage of a long battle, since other regional councils like those of Puglia, Latium, Abruzzo and Friuli are already said to be interested in and determined to follow suit, ultimately in a bid to press the same legalisation drives at national level.
Meanwhile, for its part Centro Culturale Lepanto, has decided to step up its commitment by calling on its supporters for them to join a “rosary crusade” throughout May, the month of the Virgin Mary, at the Marian shrine of Madonna del Miracolo in the historical heart of Rome.
Interestingly, these initiatives are taking place in the wake of the Pope’s recent visit to Mexico.
"We must do whatever is possible to combat this destructive evil against humanity and our youth", the Pope told reporters on the occasion.
“It is the responsibility of the Church to educate consciences, to teach moral responsibility and to unmask the evil, to unmask this idolatry of money which enslaves man, to unmask the false promises, the lies, the fraud that is behind drugs".