Marijuana advocates in Italy announced over the weekend that they had collected enough signatures to trigger a referendum on decriminalizing the use of the drug, setting the stage for a nationwide vote on the issue in 2022.

The referendum proposal seeks to legalize the growing of marijuana for personal use, and it would ease sanctions on other cannabis-related crimes, with offenders no longer risking prison sentences for selling small amounts of the drug, Reuters reports.

Organizers of the petition gathered the required 500,000 signatures in seven days, far more quickly than usual because of a law passed in July that allows signatures to be collected online. Previously, only in-person signing was allowed.

“This is an extraordinary result but it’s not surprising,” said the referendum’s organizing committee, which is comprised of several pro-weed groups.

Italy’s main political parties in Mario Draghi’s national unity government are divided over the issue.

The 5-Star Movement favors decriminalization, but the right-wing League and Brothers of Italy oppose it.

The centre-left Democratic Party typically takes a cautious, non-committal line.

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