Simone Stara is 49 years old and lives in Vinovo, in the province of Turin. At 17, a dive into a swimming pool radically changed his life: the impact of his head against the bottom caused a spinal cord injury at the fifth cervical vertebra. The diagnosis was tetraplegia. Since then, he has lived with paresthesia, osteoarthritis, arthritis, and chronic pain that structures his daily routine.

In 2012, after years of ineffective treatments and drug resistance, he decided to turn to medical cannabis to manage his suffering. In Italy, the therapy has been officially recognized since 2016 for conditions such as spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, and chemotherapy induced nausea. However, state production entrusted to the Military Pharmaceutical Chemical Plant in Florence covers only part of the national demand, and the available strains are often insufficient to meet patients’ clinical needs.

In order to avoid turning to the illegal market, Simone chose to cultivate his own supply for therapeutic use, assuming the criminal risks that still affect those who grow cannabis, even with a medical prescription.

While in many countries cannabis prohibition has been progressively dismantled or reformed expanding legal access for both medical and recreational use in Italy regulatory constraints and production shortages continue to directly impact patients’ lives. Through Simone Stara’s story, the tangible consequences of this gap emerge: between home, treatment, and legal risk, everyday life becomes the vantage point from which an unresolved institutional contradiction can be observed.