They were smoking marijuana in observance of the cult of the god Shiva. For this reason, the Bologna Court of Appeal yesterday acquitted two citizens, one from Forlì, members of the Hare Krishna movement, who had been convicted in the first instance in January 2023 on charges of cultivation and possession of cannabis.
The second section of the Bologna Court accepted the defense's arguments, according to which the two had taken the narcotic substance for religious reasons, overturning the Court's ruling, because the fact did not exist.
The two, Il Resto del Carlino reports , lived in a 19th-century hermitage in the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines, between Premilcuore and Rocca San Casciano, in the province of Forlì-Cesena. The hermitage was only partially accessible by off-road vehicles and the rest on foot. It had no gas connection and was heated by wood. The Carabinieri responded after a hiker reported smelling marijuana.
At the scene, the two had spontaneously handed over 32 cannabis plants, approximately 48 grams of the same substance, and just over 4 grams of hashish, grown outdoors without any concealment measures. In the first instance, they were sentenced to five months and ten days in prison and a fine of €800 each.
The defense appealed the sentence, arguing that cannabis use was linked to the worship of the god Shiva —there was a votive altar in the hermitage—and citing religious freedom. They also highlighted the rudimentary cultivation methods, the absence of any evidence suggesting drug dealing, and the profile of the two defendants: no criminal record, financially self-sufficient, and with no ties to illegal networks. The reasons for the sentence will be filed within 60 days.
(Unioneonline)
