Cannabis laws in Rome, Italy
Decriminalized
You cannot legally buy recreational cannabis in Rome — personal possession is an administrative offence, not a legal allowance.
Official sources checked November 6, 2026. This is news information, not legal advice. Laws and local penalties change — confirm with the destination's official sources before you travel.
Before you fly
Carrying cannabis across a border is treated separately from possessing it inside the country. Even where buying is legal, taking it onto a plane can be a customs or smuggling offence, and a domestic flight can become an international one the moment you connect somewhere else.
Current law at a glance
- Buying as a visitor
- There is no legal recreational dispensary system. Article 18 of Decree-Law 48/2025 restricted hemp inflorescences and their derivatives — including extracts, resins and oils — rather than creating a tourist cannabis market. Do not assume low THC or a CBD label makes flower lawful.
- Possession
- Possession purely for personal use is handled administratively under Article 75 of Presidential Decree 309/1990, with seizure and possible document-related sanctions. No verified gram quantity is lawful for travelers to possess. Supply and trafficking stay criminal.
- Smoking in public
- Public smoking is not a lawful entitlement: the associated personal possession can trigger seizure and Article 75 proceedings. Official prefecture guidance lists administrative measures rather than a standard street-smoking cash fine, and it publishes a 30-day immediate driving-licence withdrawal when the person has immediate availability of a motor vehicle. No separate Rome municipal cannabis fine was verified.
- Medical cannabis and travel documents
- The Health Ministry requires a certificate for travelers carrying prescribed narcotic or psychotropic medicines. Its instructions set a maximum 30-day validity and require the certificate to stay with the traveler for customs or police inspection. Automatic dispensing locally against a foreign cannabis prescription was not verified.
- Home growing
- There is no general recreational growing licence. Cultivation is distinct from administratively sanctioned possession, and any narrow judicial exception for minimal domestic personal cultivation is not a tourist entitlement — current exception criteria and plant counts were not verified.
- The 2025 court claim
- No official 2025 Constitutional Court ruling legalizing cannabis or striking down a 2021 cannabis law was found. The relevant hemp statute is Law 242/2016 as amended in 2025, and the Court's register contains referral 26/2026 challenging Article 18 of Decree-Law 48/2025 — a referral is not a judgment overturning the law.
Key dates and proposed changes
2 December 2016
Law 242/2016 set up the industrial-hemp framework later amended by the 2025 security legislation. It was not a 2021 recreational-legalization law.
12 April 2025
Decree-Law 48/2025 took force, including Article 18's changes on hemp flowers and derivatives.
Normattiva — Decree-Law 48/2025 commencement and conversionGazzetta Ufficiale — Decree-Law 48/2025, Article 18
2026
The Constitutional Court's register lists referral 26/2026 challenging the 2025 hemp restrictions. That entry does not establish the restrictions were overturned.
Practical questions
Can I buy weed in Rome?
Not legally for recreational use. Decriminalizing personal possession does not legalize sellers or create licensed recreational shops.
Interior Ministry, Turin Prefecture — national personal-possession proceduresGazzetta Ufficiale — Decree-Law 48/2025, Article 18
Can I smoke on the street?
Do not assume it is permitted. Possession can lead to seizure and administrative proceedings. A uniform national cash fine specifically for cannabis street smoking, or a separate Rome amount, was not verified.
Interior Ministry, Turin Prefecture — national personal-possession procedures
Can I fly home with it?
Do not export recreational cannabis or assume CBD flower is exempt. For prescribed controlled medicines, obtain the required certificate and separately check the destination's import rules.
Gazzetta Ufficiale — Decree-Law 48/2025, Article 18Ministry of Health — certificate instructions for travelers carrying controlled medicines
Can I bring prescribed cannabis into Italy?
The Health Ministry requires a controlled-medicine travel certificate naming the patient, prescriber, medicine, quantities and issuing authority, with a maximum 30-day validity. Confirm your exact cannabis preparation qualifies before you leave.
Ministry of Health — certificate instructions for travelers carrying controlled medicines
Did a 2025 Constitutional Court decision legalize cannabis?
That claim was not verified. The official material found instead identifies a 2026 constitutional referral about the 2025 amendments to the 2016 hemp law — not a judgment legalizing recreational cannabis.
Constitutional Court — referral register entry 26/2026Gazzetta Ufficiale — Decree-Law 48/2025, Article 18
What about CBD or cannabis light?
Do not rely on a low-THC label. The 2025 text expressly covers hemp inflorescences and flower-derived extracts, resins and oils. Product-specific exemptions and later litigation outcomes need checking, and no general tourist CBD-flower safe harbour was verified.
Gazzetta Ufficiale — Decree-Law 48/2025, Article 18Constitutional Court — referral register entry 26/2026
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Official sources
- Interior Ministry, Turin Prefecture — national personal-possession procedures
- Gazzetta Ufficiale — Decree-Law 48/2025, Article 18
- Normattiva — Decree-Law 48/2025 commencement and conversion
- Constitutional Court — referral register entry 26/2026
- Ministry of Health — certificate instructions for travelers carrying controlled medicines