(ANSA) - Rome, May 9 - The League voted for Law 242/2016, which made cannabis shops legal, Five Star Movement (M5S) MP and head of the Constitutional Affairs Commission at the Chamber of Deputies noted on Thursday. "It was a law that received unanimous approval in the last legislature," he added, "in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Some academic research has shown that these shops helped to reduce the illegal selling of marijuana and hashish. And so who actually wants to fight drugs?". Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had said earlier in the day that his drive to close all of Italy's 'cannabis shops' has started with the closure of three stores in central Italy.
    These shops sell 'cannabis light' - hemp flowers and products that have an extremely low level of the psychoactive compound in normal marijuana that makes people high.
    At the moment 'cannabis light' can be sold legally, although, in theory at least, the aromatic hemp flowers must not be smoked or eaten and any eventual seeds must not be cultivated.