http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere...1705182,00.html

Anyone planning a holiday in Italy and thinking of enjoying a quiet spliff while, let's say, watching the sun go down over the Bay of Naples, had better think again.

A vote in the Italian parliament yesterday means that a new, zero-tolerance policy on drugs is almost certain to become law within the next couple of months. With the aroma of defiantly smoked cannabis floating in the air outside, lawmakers approved a measure that abolishes the distinction between hard and soft drugs and makes possession, as well as dealing, a criminal offence.

The proposed penalties for possession have a distinctly Italian flavour. They include being banned from riding a scooter and being forbidden to enter a football stadium.

Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing government had virtually assured the endorsement of the new guidelines by tying them into a bill providing the necessary legislation for security measures at the Turin Winter Olympics, which begin on Friday. Having already passed the upper house of parliament, they are virtually assured of reaching the statute book, though anti-prohibitionists are appealing to the country's president, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, not to sign them into law.

Today, they wheeled a giant, papier-mache model of a spliff into the square outside parliament in the centre of Rome, set off coloured flares, chanted, sang and then - joined by some of the legislators opposed to the bill - lit up. Paolo Cento, a leader of Italy's Green party, was among those who took part in the protest smoke-in.

Several opposition MPs said the government was distancing the country from its European partners, several of whom have already implemented, or are least considering, decriminalisation. But Isabella Bertolini, deputy leader in parliament of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, said the main point of the proposed law was to impose a "hard line on the dealers who sow death".

Italy's own drugs laws were significantly relaxed after a referendum in 1993. The U-turn is the brainchild of Gianfranco Fini, Mr Berlusconi's deputy in government and leader of the formerly neo-fascist National Alliance.

Two years ago, he declared that a new approach was needed because drug-taking was a "rejection of the most elementary duties of the individual towards the various communities in which he or she lives".

Another reason for the clampdown, he argued, was the increased strength of the cannabis derivatives reaching Italy. "The joint of 10 years ago had an active ingredient of at most 1.5%", he said. "Today, you can find them with as much as 15%".

Yesterday's bill re-establishes the concept, abolished in 1993, of a normal daily supply as a way of distinguishing between drug-users and drug-traffickers. The task of fixing precise quantities for each drug will be delegated to the health ministry.

Anyone caught with more than the permitted amount will be liable to between six and 20 years in jail. Those found with less also risk trial and conviction, but the penalties will be a lot less severe.

Government supporters have argued that this sharp distinction will ensure that no one is jailed for mere possession. But opposition politicians insist that, if the allowable quantity for a drug is set too low, someone in possession of, say, a week's or month's supply could end up going to jail for years.

How the proposed new law will affect foreigners is still unclear, but the original draft proposals included a provision according to which tourists found with even a single ecstasy pill would have their passports impounded.

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"The favorite American pastime is not baseball, it's moral crusades."