ROME - Growing small amounts of marijuana at home for private use is not a crime, Italy's top court has ruled, putting an end to a years-long legal dispute and adding Italy to the short list of countries to allow cultivation of recreational cannabis.

A 1990s law prohibits the cultivation and sale of marijuana in Italy, but conflicting court decisions, and a 2016 amendment that opened a loophole in the law, created confusion over how it should be interpreted.

The country's highest court appears to have settled at least part of the question, writing in a one-page statement of its findings that "at home, small-scale cultivation activities are to be considered excluded from the application of the penal code."

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The Islamic State and its terrorist proxies would suffer if cannabis were decriminalized, Italy's top prosecutor argues.

In a recent interview, Franco Roberti also pointed out the links between the extremist group and organized crime in his country.

Roberti is Italy's anti-terrorism and anti-mafia chief, a joint portfolio that was created last year. He said decriminalizing marijuana - or even making it legal - would dent the illicit networks that profit from its sale and production.

The Islamic State, in particular, gleans money off smuggling routes from parts of Libya into Europe.

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Although Legal, Cannabis Is Still Taboo In A Country Where The Catholic Church's Sway Is Powerful

ROVIGO, Italy - Italy legalized marijuana for medical use last year, but the high cost of buying legal pot in a pharmacy meant few people signed up. Now, the government has found a solution: get the army to grow it.

Starting next year, a high-security lab in a military compound in Florence will grow cannabis for Italy's health care system in an experiment the government says could bring safe, legal and affordable marijuana to suffering patients.

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ITALY legalised marijuana for medical use last year, but the high cost of buying pot in a pharmacy meant that few people signed up.

Now, the government has found a solution get the army to grow it.

Starting next year, a high-security laboratory in a military compound in Florence will grow cannabis for Italy's health care system in an experiment the government says could bring safe, legal and affordable marijuana to suffering patients.

The new army supply should allow the government to lower the price for consumers, who now have to pay up to ten times as much at a pharmacy for marijuana officially imported from Holland that they might for a bag on the street from a local drug dealer.

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