As Italy’s crackdown on drugs hits Sardinia, hemp flowers again drawn into the fray

A record-breaking haul of more than 100,000 cannabis plants seized in 2024 on the island of Sardinia suggests that Italy’s intensified crackdown on illicit drugs is spilling over into the industrial hemp sector—with local farmers saying their legitimate hemp crops are under threat.

The latest report from Italy’s Central Directorate for Anti-Drug Services within the Ministry of the Interior reveals that in Sardinia 100,336 cannabis plants were seized during 2024, an increase of 32.6 % from 72,698 plants in 2023. Two-thirds of all seized plants in Italy were located on the island, according to the report.

Some industry and farming sources argue that at least part of this volume may include industrial hemp crops mistakenly treated as narcotics. For example, operators in the city of Sassari said police units previously cleared their farm as legal, yet a subsequent inspection labeled the same crop “planted plants for narcotic purposes.”

Marijuana is illegal in Italy; hemp, technically, is not.

A simple question

Italy’s financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, said it identified and destroyed 276 kilos of dried cannabis flowers and an additional 2,000 plants in the Sassari raid. 

The Sardinia Cannabis Association criticized the agency: “Just a few months earlier, the Carabinieri (police) in the Ozieri commune of Sassari and the NIPAF (the environmental/agri-food investigative unit) had already inspected that same company, performing rapid tests that confirmed the cultivation was fully legal,” the group said in a statement. “Now the question is simple: How is it possible that for one law enforcement agency it is industrial hemp and for another, after seven days, it suddenly becomes a ‘narcotic?’”

National drug crackdown

The government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made law and order, as well as anti-drug trafficking, a national priority. In September 2024, Italy chaired the G7 and adopted a declaration strengthening cooperation against synthetic drug threats, and Meloni has repeatedly publicly supported stronger penalties and police powers in the fight against organized drug trafficking.

The Interior ministry’s report details broader drug-trafficking trends in Sardinia: cocaine seizures rose from 114 kg in 2023 to 169.35 kg in 2024; hashish seizures jumped from 240.64 kg to 383.53 kg; synthetic-drug powder seizures escalated from 5 kg to 417 kg—a rise of 8,240%. The port of Cagliari accounted for nearly 72% of Italy’s maritime hashish interceptions.

Meloni’s war on CBD

In addition to her war on hard drugs, Meloni has taken aim at hemp flowers and hemp-flower extracts. While the industrial hemp sector remains legal under Italy’s Law 242/16, a government decree broadly banning hemp flower and derived products as narcotics has significantly increased uncertainty for farmers.

Since 2024, the Meloni government has moved aggressively to reclassify hemp flowers and extracts such as CBD, CBG and CBN as narcotics despite a ruling by the European Court of Justice that such substances are legal.

Under the Italian government’s emergency decree, the cultivation, sale, processing, transport and possession of hemp flowers—even from certified low-THC hemp varieties—are effectively banned nationwide. Industry groups have warned the measure threatens thousands of companies and tens of thousands of jobs in Italy’s hemp value chain.

Sardinia’s hemp vision

Sardinia has for several years sought to establish a structured industrial hemp industry—both for fiber and grain production, as well as for land reclamation and phytoremediation projects. In 2022 the regional council passed a law to regulate sowing and processing of hemp, underscoring the sector’s growth potential.

For investors and supply-chain firms tracking Italy’s hemp market, Sardinia’s case is a bellwether. On one hand, the region offers a favorable climate, available land and a regional hemp law designed to support processing.

But now, with law enforcement activity ramped up, farmers say the risk of misclassification of hemp crops as illicit cannabis is rising. That creates practical problems: planted acreage may shrink, seed‐to‐sale monitoring becomes more burdensome, insurance and financing become riskier, and processors may hesitate to contract with farms until legal clarity returns.