Colonel says drugs seized by police were not good enough for patients needing medical marijuana.

The Italian army is growing large crops of cannabis in order to force the price of the drug down to about €8 per gram, according to the colonel overseeing production.

In September 2014, the country’s government announced the army would help increase the production of medical marijuana, with the first secure growing facility unveiled in Florence in April last year.

When antibiotic drugs were first discovered in 1928, they revolutionized healthcare. By the end of World War II, their production had exploded.

Decades later, things have changed.

Today, according to an estimate from the CDC, about half of the antibiotic prescriptions in the United States are totally unnecessary. The effects of that over-prescription are serious.

Minister Costa says legislation doesn't have enough support.

A bill on legalising cannabis will not be voted on until after parliament's summer recess in September, Walter Verini, an MP for Premier Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said on Monday.

Some 2,000 amendments have been presented to the bill, which is set to be debated on the floor of the Lower House on Monday, mostly by lawmakers opposed to it.

"Today we will start the debate (on the bill) without any hypocrisy, but the the examination of the bill will be postponed until September and then the parties will have to decide what approach to take," said Verini, the PD leader in the Lower House's justice committee.

Italian lawmakers will begin discussion on Monday of a proposal to ease up on the recreational use and growing of cannabis -- a highly inflammatory topic, with the government on the fence.

Were the draft to pass into law, people would be allowed to grow up to five cannabis plants for personal use and keep up to 15 grams of marijuana at home and five grams on their person.

It would still be illegal for people to buy or sell weed or smoke marijuana in public, but the Italian state could start issuing licenses allowing the drug to be grown and sold in a similar way to tobacco.

Several European countries, as well as a number of US states, have legalised marijuana in recent years, both for medical and recreational use.

Calabria is considered Italy’s wildest region. Besides being home to one of the most secretive and ruthless mafia organizations, the 'ndrangheta, it also gave name to the Italy’s only psychoactive cannabis landrace strains. 

Located in the southernmost part of the sunny, hilly countryside, Calabria forms the “toe” of the Italian peninsula. To foreign visitors, Calabria might sometimes be overwhelming. The food is a bit coarse and very spicy — peperoncino, the local chili peppers, are sold not by the gram but by the kilo.

In July, Italy's parliament will begin debating historic changes to cannabis laws that could see the drug legalized.

On July 25th, the draft legislation will be presented in Italy's lower house for the first time. The following day, politicians will begin voting on whether or not to send the bill through to the upper house for final approval.

If new laws are passed, how will things change?

Obviously, the proposals being debated will probably undergo some amendments if they are to make it into law. However, in their current form proposals would allow:

Possession: Citizens will be able to hold up to 15 grams of herb at home and take up to five grams with them when they go out and about.

Cannabis activists gathered in the Southern Italian town of Salerno, near Naples, earlier this month to form a new federation in favor of regulating cannabis in Italy. There are even hopeful signs the effort will find traction — Parliament is scheduled to have a debate on the subject on June 27.

The passing of a joint, besides still being illegal in Italy, can be especially dangerous in Naples. The local Mafia, the “system,” does not tolerate third parties selling or distributing cannabis outside its monopoly. It’s a fact often denounced by the powerful DIA, the District Anti-Mafia Direction, which last year proclaimed the utter failure of prohibition and urged the government to start regulating cannabis. 

Experts gathered in Rome last last month for an Italian parliament hearing on a proposal to legalize cannabis. The proposal, dubbed Cannabis Legale, is the brainchild of a committee that includes more than 200 senators and deputies. 

So what are the chances of Italy legalizing any time soon?

In the fields around Taranto, Puglia, more and more farmers are sowing fields of cannabis in a bid to save their precious soil which has been rendered unsafe thanks to years of pollution from Europe's biggest steel plant.