I patients treated with the cannabis they are afraid of getting behind the wheel, and with good reason. From 14 December they risk having their driving license withdrawn for three years, a fine of up to 6 thousand euros and imprisonment for up to one year, due to article 187 of the new Highway Code “sponsored” by Matteo Salvini.
So they presented a beware to the government (Ministry of Health, Transport, Justice), the Chamber and the Senate, for the “impelling” convocation of the Technical tableby January 20th. Objective: evaluate exceptions to allow patients treated with THC and CBD (two of the active ingredients of cannabis) to get behind the wheel without fear of sanctions. If Meloni and Salvini turn a deaf ear, thousands of patients are ready for one class action against the government for physical and moral damages.
Patients distrust the government – Today the warning arrived via certified e-mail (with legal value) to the ministerial offices. It bears the signature of the lawyers Claudio Miglio e Lorenzo Simonetti in the interests of the principals associations of patients: Medical Cannabis Patients, Hemp Coffee, PDL vulvodynia and pudendal neuropathy, Association for the Protection of Medical Cannabis Patients APS ETS, Cannabis social club of Bolzano, Meglio Legale, Hemp Sativa Italy, Deep Green, Cannabis Medical Center, THC Milan The Hemp Club , Seminiamoprincipi, Cannabis medical center and Ornella Muti Hemp Club, CFU-Italia, Carlo Therapy, Cannabis Cura Sicilia, Protection of Medical Cannabis Patients, Aps Medical Cannabis Patients Association.
Fear of driving, risk of having your license withdrawn and imprisonment – Behind the acronyms there are cancer patients and multiple sclerosis sufferers, people tortured by chronic pain, glaucoma, anxieties, insomnia, depression, serious motor or verbal difficulties, with disabilities even up to 100 percent. Everyone has fear to get behind the wheel now, due to the new Highway Code. Testing positive for THC is enough to risk having your driving document withdrawn, even if you are alert and present to yourself. According to the government, in fact, it is too difficult for the police to determine with certainty the status of psychophysical alteration. So the requirement is gone: to be punished, a positive drug test is enough. Problem: traces of the cannabinoid remain in the body for up to 3 days after consumption, well beyond the duration of the psychotropic effects. Many patients take the treatment daily, therefore they always drive with the fear of the penalty.
Salvini's embarrassing patches, the waltz of the technical tables – Matteo Salvini, overwhelmed by the controversy, has been trying to solve the puzzle for days, bordering on the surreal in two episodes. The first is on December 16th. Two days after the new Code came into force, the MIT leaked the following tissue: “Enough fake news, no absolute ban on driving for patients, but a necessary consideration case by caseas already happens today.” Some lawyers call it “fluff”, because the law does not provide exemptions for patients. In any case, who should evaluate “case by case”: the officer who raises the paddle at the checkpoint? Nobody feels reassured.
But Salvini's masterpiece is the announcement of December 7: “Let's open a technical table to protect people being treated with psychotropic drugs, such as therapeutic cannabis”. It's a shame that the table already exists, established on 16 November 2021 at the Ministry of Health, at the time of Roberto Speranza: never called by the Meloni government, despite the certified e-mails and the protest of 16 February 2023, in front of the Ministry of Health in Viale Trastevere.
No hearings with patients: who are the experts listened to by Salvini? – While preparing the new Highway Code ignoring patients, Salvini carried out “consultations with the most representative trade associations”, to identify “the largest criticality in the application of the new Code”. It is written on page 109 of the Parliamentary Acts of Bill no. 1435. It is not known who the experts listened to by Salvini, but they forgot to point out to the deputy prime minister the “hole” in the law that takes away the sleep of patients with a driving licence. In any case, it is one double insult for fragile subjects: first the Northern League leader ignored the patients' technical table, then he announced another one, finally it turns out that he consulted a third one (keeping the secret as to who is part of it).
Thousands of patients ready for class action against the government – The warning is clear: Salvini's waltz on the technical table is “unacceptable” for patients. If the government had consulted them earlier, perhaps thousands of sick people would have avoided the torture to get behind the wheel, during Christmas holidayswith the anguish of having their license withdrawn and imprisonment. Now we need to intervene immediately by convening the Table created in 2021, forgotten by Salvini, to write the exceptions to the new Highway Code. The deadline indicated by the warning is January 20th: if the Roundtable is not called for that date, thousands of patients are ready to class action against the government, for physical and moral damage.
In the front row, Ornella Muti and Naike Rivelli – The associations already agree with it Miglio-Simonetti law firm. Moreover, “the mental anguish suffered by patients, caused by the fear of driving a car”, cannot be ignored. From the fear of sanctions arises the “concrete and current limitation on their freedom of movement for reasons of work, study, relationships and care”. He knows it well Naike Rivellidaughter of Ornella Muti: in a post on Instagram on 16 December he announced that he had given up taking the car to travel from Rome to Piedmont, due to fear of the checkpoint and the drug test, since in the evening he takes 6 drops of bedrocan (a drug based of cannabis).
Legal war ahead – If the government chooses a hard fist, for ideological or political reasons, it will put on its helmet and go to war. war (legal) with fragile subjects. If the pragmatic path prevails, the Technical Table will be convened by January 20th and the dialogue will begin. Moreover, the ministries do not even have to reimburse travel and accommodation for those invited to the meeting. The last time the Table met was May 25, 2022. Remember Carlo Monaco: “Sick people, even disabled people and those in wheelchairs, came to Rome from all over Italy with their money and to help them save I hosted them in my home – certainly not a hotel – when I could. As usual, we patients help ourselves and make do.”
