Italian minister’s drug-taking tip: ‘If you’re gonna smoke a joint, do it right’ 

A drug-taking tip from Italy’s agriculture minister went viral Tuesday. This came after he scoffed at “cannabis light” and said if you’re going to smoke a joint, “do it right”.

Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government is considering banning so-called “Cannabis light”, a weaker form of the drug. It contains less than 0.5 percent of the psychoactive compound THC that has been legal in Italy for production and sale since 2019.

During a rally Monday ahead of this weekend’s European Parliament elections, a television journalist handed Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida a joint, saying it was “Cannabis light” and asking him if he would like to try.

“No, light, no. If you’re going to smoke a joint, do it right,” said Lollobrigida.

Minister’s comments go viral

The minister – a member of Prime Minister Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party and her brother-in-law – had just stated his opposition to the widespread cultivation of cannabis.

“I don’t plan to transform our fields of grain, our crops, into fields of cannabis light,” he told the La7 television journalist.

“On the contrary, I think we can survive without it.”

Lollobrigida’s comments quickly went viral, sparking hilarity on social media, including one meme portraying him as a Rastafarian singer, complete with long dreadlocks and a joint hanging from his lips.

Italy might ban cannabis light

Meloni’s coalition government is considering an amendment to a security bill currently under discussion in parliament that would ban the sale of the weaker Cannabis, according to Italian news reports.

The far-right League party of Matteo Salvini, a coalition member, has reportedly filed its own amendment. This would forbid images of cannabis in advertising, punishable by up to two years in jail and a 20,000-euro fine.

Responding to the Lollobrigida gaffe on X, the secretary-general of the centrist +Europa party, Riccardo Magi, commented that “it’s better to make it legal. And millions of Italians think the same as I do.”

Avoid war over dinner

In the midst of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Lollobrigida similarly made headlines two weeks ago. He made light-hearted comments to a television reporter, defending “conviviality” as a vehicle for peace.

“How important it is to be at the table, to discuss, to reason, to drink a glass of wine. How many wars could have been avoided over a well-organised dinner?” he asked.

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