“I have been appointed by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers as consultant to the Department for Anti-Drug Policies,” pro-life and pro-family Catholic activist Gandolfini said.

“On a political level my action will move on three fronts: the unconditional fight against drugs, widespread information in schools, and prevention and repression where necessary of drug trafficking.

“I have always been against any attempt to legalise cannabis because from a scientific-toxicological point of view there are no soft drugs.

“But this is not a priority now.”

Gandolfini was famously mired in controversy in 2015, when he defined homosexuality as “an identity discomfort” and doubled down a few weeks later, saying “there is no study that proves that it is not a disease”.

ANSA