The Italian Army is setting up a cannabis monopoly in Italy, but what does it even mean?
The Italian defence forces have been tasked with producing more marijuana towards making its legal medical cannabis programme self-sufficient.
In an effort to make the country’s medical cannabis production autonomous, Italy is growing plants using secret nutrients in ultra-clean rooms managed with military precision, as per reports from DefenseNews.
According to official reports, the Italian Army was given the responsibility of providing legal marijuana to Italy for two reasons:
- To produce cannabis in a secure location
- Owing to the armed services’ long experience in the pharmaceutical industry, producing malaria medications and chemical warfare antidotes for soldiers.
Additionally, the army produces so-called “orphan medications”, which are treatments for uncommon illnesses or ailments that big pharmaceutical corporations avoid due to their low manufacturing volumes. Four of these medications are currently produced by the service to serve 3,000 Italians.
Italy legalised medical cannabis nearly a decade ago, but it has long depended on imports of the crop in order to satisfy the demand within its borders. Currently, the country requires approximately 1,500 kg of medical cannabis annually in order to treat patients in need of pain relief, such as those with cancer or Parkinson’s disease.
Prior to this, the bulk of cannabis to meet medicinal needs were imported from Netherlands, Canada, Denmark and Germany. However, the advent of the state-of-the-art military growing facility at the edge of Florence could change that up for good.
The Florence-based company, which began operations in 2014, managed 50 kg in 2020 before increasing to 300 kg in 2022. The growth was made possible by increasing the number of growing rooms, from two in 2016 to ten in 2018. With six flowering rooms, each of which capable of holding between 50 and 125 plants, the facility produces six harvests per year.
Technicians are optimising lighting, watering, temperature, and ventilation in order to reach 700 kg the next year. They also employ a blend of top-secret nutrients created in-house that are combined with the hydroponic irrigation.
Two strains of cannabis have been registered by the Italian Army: FM1 and FM2. Both strains of “Farmaceutico Militare” (Military Pharmaceutical) have varying levels of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC - the compound that gives cannabis its psychotropic qualities.
Though private companies shall contribute to the plants grown within the facility, the state-owned facility aims to be the primary producer of cannabis in order to regulate quality and pricing.