Malta Must Be Only Country Where You Can Possess Weed But Can’t Buy It, Franco Debono Says
Almost a year since Malta passed landmark cannabis reform laws, lawyer Franco Debono pointed out that the island must be the only country in the world where you can possess weed but cannot buy it.
“As far as I know, there aren’t any legal outlets from where one buy cannabis, which would mean that Malta is the only country in the world where you can possess cannabis but cannot purchase it legally,” Debono said.
“Are they telling you to buy it illegally?”
“I hope the government understands the gravity and the ugliness of this situation and how much responsibility should be shouldered.”
Meanwhile, former PN MP Jason Azzopardi said that parents, professionals and lawyers have been flagging the situation in recent weeks, with one unnamed “professional who works in the drug sector” warning that “the market is now packed to the brim with drugs”.
In September 2021, Prime Minister Robert Abela acknowledged that allowing people to possess cannabis without providing a legal outlet from where they can buy it will only incentivise people to resort to the black market.
“It wouldn’t make sense to amend the law while leaving a vacuum on what the legal source should be,” he said.
Two months later, a law was passed that allowed people to possess up to 7g of cannabis on their person without any repercussions and to grow up to four cannabis plants at home.
The law also introduced the concept of “cannabis associations”, which would cultivate the plant and distribute it to its signed-up members and will have to abide by several regulations enforced by the new Cannabis Authority.
Mariella Dimech, the Cannabis Authority’s first executive chairperson, was given a contract worth up to €82,000 a year and pledged that cannabis associations will be up and running by the end of 2022.
However, applications for associations have yet to open, and when Dimech was fired from the job last week, she criticised the government for not giving her the necessary resources and said she disagreed with the political strategy on cannabis.
Dimech has since been replaced by Leonid McKay.
How do you assess Malta’s cannabis reform so far?
READ NEXT: Malta's Weed Reform Failed Its First Test - How, Why And What Comes Next?
