In a June 28 decision, Italy's top court ruled that citizens may grow marijuana on their balconies and terraces. The small amounts produced in such grows "could cause no harm," the Court of Cassation said.

[image:1 align:right]The ruling came in the case of a 23-year-old charged for keeping a pot plant in a vase on his balcony in the town of Scalea, Calabria. Prosecutors from the Catanzaro Court of Appeals had challenged a lower court's not guilty verdict in his case.

The Court of Cassation had previously held that growing drug plants always required punishment, even if the amount of drugs involved was miniscule. But in 2009, the high court held that growing pot was okay as long as people didn't let the plants get big enough to harvest the drug.

Now, the court has gone a bit further. The plant in the current case would have yielded about a half ounce of marijuana, the court heard, and it was fine with that.