Deep inside a labyrinthine army facility in Florence, a biologist in a white coat opens a door into a brightly lit room packed with cannabis plants, which are releasing a honey smell.
“That sweetness is a feature of our cannabis and makes it more pleasant to consume,” he says proudly.
The plants are part of an effort by the Italian army to produce large amounts of top grade own-brand cannabis to satisfy Italy’s booming, and legal, medical market.
Black watering tubes snaking into each plant container supply a secret cocktail of nutrients developed by the army that officials hail as key to soaring yields, which will reach 700kg next year, up from 50kg two years ago.
“We have extremely high standards and feedback from users is very good, whether they are cancer or rheumatism sufferers needing pain relief, or people trembling due to Parkinson’s,” said Colonel Gabriele Picchioni, the head of the facility.
Launched in 2014, the army’s lab is aimed at weaning Italy off the cannabis imported for medical use from the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark and Germany as domestic demand rises to 1,500kg a year.
The army is so pleased with its homegrown cannabis it has registered two types as brands. FM1, with FM standing for Farmaceutico Militare, contains up to 20 per cent Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the ingredient that cuts pain but also has a narcotic effect. FM2 has 7 per cent THC but also 8.5 per cent cannabidiol, a natural anti-inflammatory agent. Recreational weed contains up to 50 per cent THC.
“As far as I know we are the only army in the world doing this and it is a point of national pride,” said the facility’s spokesman, Lieutenant Camillo Borzacchiello.
The army got the job because it can guarantee tight security but also because it has been making drugs since the 19th century, from quinine to keep soldiers malaria-free to antidotes for chemical warfare.
Today its Florence facility supplies 3,000 Italian patients who have rare diseases with medicines that would cost too much on the open market.
With the focus shifting to cannabis, eight ultra-clean growing rooms have been built at the facility in the past few years, bringing to total to ten. Donning protective clothing to avoid contaminating plants, the “master grower” Giorgio Faggiana gave the Times a tour, starting in a room with 42 “mother” plants, which match the genetic type the army requires and provide cuttings for new plants.
Along a corridor a room hosts newly planted cuttings, which are moved to another room as they grow before they are transferred into one of six flowering rooms, where 26C heat and blindingly bright lights ensure big buds.
“We remove some leaves to create a little stress for the plants, which stimulates the buds,” said Faggiana. As plants shuttle through the system there are six harvests a year in each of the flowering rooms, which host between 50 and 125 plants, he said.
The last stop is the drying room, where the harvested buds have their stalks removed before they are ground up and placed in 5g containers for delivery to Italian chemists, which will sell the cannabis for just under €8 per gramme.
None of the cannabis leaves the building in Florence without being treated with gamma rays to kill bacteria, said Colonel Picchioni. “We also ensure there are zero pesticides and no heavy metals in our product — we don’t joke when it comes to health,” he added.
Users currently ingest the cannabis by making a hot beverage with it or putting it in a vaporiser and breathing it in with steam, but the colonel said that experts in Florence were working on steeping the cannabis in olive oil so users to take it as drops.
“Oil is easier, and can even be applied externally to treat shingles,” said Picchioni.
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Source: thetimes.co.uk
