"We are very satisfied with the acquittal because the fact does not exist. It is the desired solution, for some time we had asked for it to be archived. De Benedetto has never used drugs": so after the sentence of the court of Arezzo one of the defenders , lawyer Lorenzo Simonetti, explains the acquittal sentence for Walter De Benedetto, 48, suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and accused in a trial because he grew cannabis in the garden that he has always claimed to use for therapeutic purposes. "Only for this he used it - explains the lawyer - for the pain that rheumatoid arthritis he suffered from it caused him. The doses provided by the ASL were not enough for his treatment".
"I am satisfied, not only for me but also for all those who live in the same difficulties as me precisely because the principle of the right to be treated with cannabis for therapeutic purposes only has been affirmed. I thank those who supported me and the mobilization that has been created around me. From this sentence we can start to carry on our struggle ", said Walter De Benedetto himself, after having learned of the acquittal. This morning he was not in the courtroom because last night he was not well but, reached on the phone, he commented on the sentence.
"I feel very relieved by the court decision," he also said. To weigh on the acquittal orientation of the sentence precisely the fact, as his lawyer pointed out, that De Benedetto never used drugs and used cannabis only for exclusively therapeutic uses.
"Today is a historic day. Walter De Benedetto had set up a marijuana greenhouse to use the substance for therapeutic purposes and relieve pain. 'That greenhouse was not a crime' and so today the acquittal has arrived because" the fact does not exist " . This sentence is natural, obvious, taken for granted as are the arguments of those who say that patients have access to medical cannabis in Italy and that everything is fine ". This was stated by the Minister for Youth Policies Fabiana Dadone in a long post on Facebook, where she adds: "Today I feel like celebrating this sentence and I do it with a hair drug test".
After recalling that "in Italy to date the sick are forced into legal battles because we have too many legislators who reject a confrontation on the merits", Minister Dadone invites "for the umpteenth time to an act of public coherence the detractors of the legalization of marijuana that they believe are 'bad teachers' those in favor. "I can not take drugs - points out Dadone in the post - and be in favor of the legalization of marijuana, I can be heterosexual and be in favor of LGBT rights. We don't need to live an experience directly to understand it,to empathize with those who suffer every day in silence the abuses of a violent and repressive mentality. We are not the wrong ones, we are not the criminals and often it is precisely those who live by this linearity of thought who hide a frustration, a secret. Do not be afraid and if you are against legalization and against the rights of those who suffer, argue your ideas without slogans, without violence and without prejudice. Take a step towards confrontation, it is never a bad move. Walter today - concludes the minister - was not a bad teacher, on the contrary. Can you say the same? ".Do not be afraid and if you are against legalization and against the rights of those who suffer, argue your ideas without slogans, without violence and without prejudice. Take a step towards confrontation, it is never a bad move. Walter today - concludes the minister - was not a bad teacher, on the contrary. Can you say the same? ".Do not be afraid and if you are against legalization and against the rights of those who suffer, argue your ideas without slogans, without violence and without prejudice. Take a step towards confrontation, it is never a bad move. Walter today - concludes the minister - was not a bad teacher, on the contrary. Can you say the same? ".