Cannabis News
Italian hemp sector keeps growing despite legal uncertainties
Despite the initial boom and great promises of great opportunities, the hemp sector is struggling in many countries around the world. From the recent hemp ban in the US, to a similar ban in Italy, which has effectively halted the growth of this industry.
Effects of hemp prohibition
Among the 3,000 companies associated with Canapa Sativa Italia (CSI) – the Italian hemp industry association – 10% closed after the hemp ban amendment was signed. Another 10% are preparing to go abroad. Numbers can be interpreted in many ways, one of these interpretations paints a space under pressure. The reality is that the Italian hemp market continues to expand despite a regulatory structure that struggles to treat it as agriculture.
Research commissioned by CSI and conducted by MPG Consulting in April 2025 shows a very detailed picture. The flower market is worth 1,960 million euros, with 22,379 full-time employees in the supply chain. The study of the economist Davide Fortin and the lawyer Maria Paola Liotti, presented in the Chamber of Deputies on April 2, portrays an area that already behaves like modern agriculture. “It creates value, it supports jobs, and it does so with a sustainability profile that many other crops would envy. What it still lacks is institutional recognition,” they say.
Mattia Cusani, one of the first members of CSI and now its president, farms legal hemp on the Sila plateau. For him, potential is not an abstraction. He describes the hemp chain as a ready-made model of the circular economy. “Production methods, crop variability, use of residues from crop lines. It all exists,” he says. “All that is missing is a technical desk for operation and the removal of several long-standing legal knots. At the center of this stalled system sit workers between the ages of 25 and 40. They form one of the few agricultural sectors that is expanding rapidly in the country. Moreover, they belong to the generation that has experienced the worst economic shocks in recent years.”
Along with other associations, the CSI also demands a basic alignment from Brussels. “The express inclusion of flowers among the plant parts authorized for use. Treating open field and greenhouse cultivation equally. Maintaining the full legality of industrial uses such as seeds and fibers. And unifying police controls through a single ministerial decree, because today’s practices vary a lot and create uncertainty and pressure on farms.”
© Azienda Agricola Vamperti
Stories from the field
Two entrepreneurs who built their businesses legally now face confiscations caused by changes to the hemp ban.
In Rome, Noemi closed her shop at the beginning of November. He is 34 years old, with a degree in archaeology. For years he worked paid shifts at restaurants to cover expenses. In 2017, he and a flatmate invested what little they had to enter the hemp market. They opened a small shop selling Carmagnola and Futura 75, two of the varieties allowed for cultivation. Over the years, that store became a reference in a difficult neighborhood without a real meeting place. They refused to expand the franchise of foreign chains and focused on a single local store. A few days of legal confusion erased all that.
In Sardinia, the agricultural company Orti Castello seized more than 8,000 plants at the end of October 2025. The intervention report lists 2,467 items, even counting already cut stems mislabeled as sprouts. Each plant was grown from certified seed and was low in THC. Now the company is waiting to release its crop. For Massimiliano Quai and his colleagues, the shock is not limited to the lost inventory. The farm has already had thefts in the field despite the presence of guards. All this within a company that has grown continuously since 2018, through biological methods and consistent demand.
Massimiliano repeats the same idea. “Our best year has always been the next,” he says. “The store moves about 500 euros a day. Tea and honey sell fast. Only since the beginning of 2025, purchases have reached 62,910 euros. In all these years, we have had 6 months of flat or negative results. Everything else has been a constant upward movement. The plan is simple. Stay in Sardinia and consolidate. We only have to be open once, we have chosen a second site abroad. In Italy, in 2018, the political climate seemed favorable.”
MPG Consulting research places these stories within two possible futures. “According to the current model, the diverse ecosystem of shops, e-commerce platforms and tobacco shops keeps the market close to 1,960 million euros. Employment remains high, the supply chain remains diverse. The alternative is a state monopoly controlled by tobacco shops, with a tax burden of 56.5. In this scenario, the market would have a direct and indirect impact of more than 144,000 million euros. evaporate, and employment would fall to around 6,000 workers.”
However, demand grows. “The lack of commercial communication is not slowing down the market. Many are choosing hemp flowers as a substitute for tobacco rather than a substitute. It becomes part of the process of moving away from one of the most harmful and addictive substances available.”
A bunch of growers
MPG Consulting also maps the crop side. Small growers sell everything directly. Medium producers divided between retail and wholesale. Large growers rely on standardized varieties and volumes. Medium plants are the innovative key of the whole chain. They test varieties, refine phenotypes and drive the system forward. They are also the weakest link if a monopoly model becomes a reality, unlike large growers who can operate in a rigid centralized environment. “The Italian hemp sector grows anyway. The question hanging in the air is not whether it can grow, but whether the rules will ever grow with it.”
Nevada is one of the most competitive retail cannabis markets in the United States, and Deep Roots Harvest has been betting for years that the way to win is to control everything. 11 cultivation, processing, manufacturing, extraction and retail locations all under one roof, or pretty close to it. Chris O’Ferrell, Deep Roots Harvest’s Chief Cultivator, runs the growing side of that operation in two facilities totaling 30,000 square feet, pushing 500 pounds of harvested cannabis per week and 2,000 pounds of biomass per month.
“The Source and Deep Roots harvest retail team sells 75 kilos of cannabis daily, 500 kilos weekly, over a third of which is in-house to support the High Heads, Neon Moon and CAMP brands. We cultivate, extract, process, manufacture and work the retail locations,” says Chris. “We have one of the largest market shares in Nevada in terms of retail volume and gross sales.”
That volume is produced by 60 full-time employees at the two sites, and the crop program behind it is, by any reasonable measure, built for efficiency and quality. “Many of the genetics in our library consistently exceed 100 grams per square foot, which directly helps reduce our overall cost per gram,” explains Chris. “We operate with a consumer-first approach, focusing on cost consciousness while providing tasty and competitive offerings. We operate below 70 cents per gram, a benchmark that reflects careful cost management. Getting there and staying there has required compressing costs at all input levels while continuing to invest in technology that moves the needle on quality, cost efficiency and performance.”
© Deep Roots Harvest Chris O’Ferrell, Chief Cultivator at Deep Roots Harvest
Genetics as intended by the producer
The transition of light is a clear example of this, as is the case with cannabis. In the beginning, the company used your classic HPS lights. As LED technology advanced, Deep Roots made the switch. However, it wasn’t just about improving energy efficiency. Chris and the team understood that the more precisely the crop was targeted, the better the final product would be. Energy savings don’t necessarily show up on retail shelves, but crop control does, in the form of flowers that express their genetics the way the grower intended.
To achieve this level of control, the spectrum became a critical tool. “We start with the spring setting, using the blue light to regulate the spacing of the interiors and control the spacing,” he explains. “As the plants progress, we move to the summer spectrum until the end of week eight, switching to a broader spectrum light with balanced wavelengths. This increases the red light, along with other parts of the spectrum to more closely replicate sunlight. We also increase the light intensity during the flowering phase to improve the plant’s photosynthetic performance, accumulation and photosynthetic activity. The parameters support the initiation of flowering, accelerate maturation and allow the plant to reach its potential they allow him to fully express his genetics.”
Nothing is left to chance
At canopy level, plants from the two largest facilities are housed in two-gallon coco pots, chosen to accommodate longer growing periods and larger plant structures. The second facility operates stone wool. Both use substrate sensors in connection with fertigation control, and track performance at different growth stages. Dissolved oxygen is injected into the root zone to increase availability, and a chlorine injection system keeps the lines clear of pathogens with a relatively inexpensive cleanup compared to conventional cleaning programs. “A chlorine injection system is relatively inexpensive to implement, replacing approximately $40,000 in other cleaning and disinfection products annually,” says Chris. “It’s all about being ahead of the curve.”
Pest management is entirely biological, implemented in conjunction with mechanical and cultural controls. “We haven’t had any pest problems,” says Chris. “This was also a decision based on reducing inputs while maintaining, if not improving, the quality of the product.”
Genetics is the backbone of cannabis operations and the gas that drives the company’s engine. They receive the same systematic treatment as all other parts of the operation. A steering committee reviews the portfolio quarterly, withdrawing underperforming cultivars and acquiring replacements based on market data from multiple markets, cross-referenced with gaps in the current menu. The criteria are repeatable agronomic performance, yield, potency, distinctive flavor profile and the ability to wash well for extraction, ensuring strong yields for both rosin and resin production. “All genetics need to adapt to the program,” says Chris. “Unique production, potency and flavor expression that fills the void of what we don’t have on the menu. It’s about finding a commercial cultivar that works well and fits the existing infrastructure. All the cultivars we grow now have a similar and predictable growth structure. The difference is the color, the smell, the experience. They are very close agronomically.”
For more information:
Harvest deep roots
deeprootsharvest.com
The veto pen is one of the most powerful tools in the Mississippi Legislature, and Governor Tate Reeves has used it throughout his tenure. This year, his vetoes have mostly targeted public health bills so far, with more to come.
There are three ways Reeves could handle the bills that passed both chambers. He can sign bills he supports and allow them to become law without his signature. He can also block legislation he disagrees with by vetoing a bill or part of it and deferring it to a future legislative session.
As of Wednesday, April 8, he has vetoed four bills, half as many as in the previous two sessions, but Reeves will continue to review the legislation and reject more proposals in the coming days.
Reeves vetoed two medical marijuana bills that passed the Legislature this session, dealing a fatal blow to bills that have already faced friendly chambers. One of the bills, the “Right to Try Medical Cannabis,” contained only one specific provision that Reeves disputed. The original intent of the bill, which Reeves praised, was to expand the opportunity to try medical marijuana to those with debilitating conditions that fall outside the scope of current law.
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