Anyone who grows cannabis for therapeutic purposes going beyond the doctor's prescription (therefore not for simple personal consumption) or drives without ever having obtained a driving license (unless he is a repeat offender) no longer risks finding himself with a criminal record. This was established by the Government, which today gave the green light to the decriminalization package.
With the two legislative decrees passed at the end of the morning, the Council of Ministers repealed a series of criminal offences. This does not mean that the behaviors in question will no longer be punished, but that they will be transformed into administrative offenses with civil fines. The latter, however, will be much higher than the old fines and fines, varying - depending on the law violated - from a minimum of 5 thousand to a maximum of 30 thousand euros.
The crime of clandestine immigration has not been included in the measure and, as Justice Minister Andrea Orlando had already explained, it will be included in "a broader measure".
Among the crimes decriminalized by the Renzi government are instead
– all crimes not contained in the penal code punished with a monetary penalty only (fine or fine);
– obscene acts;
– obscene publications and performances;
– the refusal to lend one's work on the occasion of a riot;
– the abuse of popular credulity;
– abusive theatrical or cinematographic representations;
– acts contrary to public decency;
– the rental of copyrighted material;
– the installation and use of illegal fuel distribution systems;
– the omitted payment of social security withholdings up to the sum of 10 thousand euros.
In detail, regarding the driving without a license, today the penalty provided for by the highway code ranges from 2.257 to 9.032 euros, but a judge must impose it after a trial. And often everything goes up in smoke due to the prescription. With the new rules, on the other hand, for those who drive with an illegal license, the vehicle would immediately be arrested and confiscated, as well as a much heavier fine: from 5 to 30 euros. The penal sanction in case of recidivism also remains. The basic idea, therefore, is that the risk of paying much higher sums is a more effective deterrent than the court. And this is the philosophy of the entire regulatory package, which aims to decongest the courts, avoiding proceedings on conduct of little importance ending up there, with costs for the State and few benefits.
The decriminalization of cannabis cultivation it's about instead only those already authorized to cultivate cannabis for therapeutic use that violate the prescriptions.
The Council of Ministers also approved in final examination a legislative decree on mutual investment funds and one implementing the reform of the public administration which envisages "modification and repeal of legal provisions which provide for the adoption of non-legislative implementing measures", the so-called law-cutting decree. In detail, explains Palazzo Chigi, "the measure aims to simplify the regulatory system through the repeal of the provisions of the law containing the provision of implementing measures for which the conditions for adoption no longer exist or their modification, for the sole purpose of promote its implementation, while still ensuring the legal, logical and systemic consistency of the legislation. For this reason, with the collaboration of all the central administrations, a census was carried out which led to the identification of an initial list of measures whose conditions of adoption are no longer current and whose repeal does not have any effects on finance publish. Furthermore, a second list of measures has been drawn up, the implementation of which requires a modification of the primary legislation.
The decree modifies 12 regulations and repeals 46 of them, realizing an initial rational simplification of the regulatory system, referring to important thematic areas, with a view to increasing the effectiveness of the laws by facilitating their administrative implementation, to the benefit of citizens and businesses ”.
