Malta Tightens Weed Laws: Smoking At Home Can Land You €235 Fine If Smell Bothers Others
People who smoke cannabis at home and bother others with the smell will be subjected to a €235 fine.
It will be up to cannabis users to ensure that the smells don’t bother any third parties when they smoke at home.
This is one of a number of new regulations aimed at tightening Malta’s cannabis laws that were unanimously passed in Parliament.
The €235 fine is the same administrative fine that already applied to people who were caught smoking in public.
Meanwhile, the tighter law is specifying that, in households with minors, the cultivation of cannabis must take place under lock and key. All home growers must ensure that they don’t bother their neighbours, such as by installing a carbon filter to absorb the smells. People who breach this requirement will be subjected to an administrative fine of between €300-€500.
Here are the other new regulations:
-The fines for minors who enter licensed cannabis associations will increase from €500-€1,000 to €3,000-€10,000.
-Cannabis associations must ensure their premises are located 250m away from sports facilities. The previous law had applied this maximum distance for schools and youth centres. The 250m distance from these locations will now be calculated from their entrances, rather than the entire perimeter.
-The highest fines for serious breaches of the law will increase from €10,000 to either €50,000 or double the illicit proceeds, depending on which is highest. This will apply to legal breaches such as cannabis associations keeping surplus profit for themselves, rather than reinvesting it in their associations.
-In line with this, cannabis association officials who break the law will be charged in front of a magistrate and not in front of the Justice Commissioner. This is to cooperate with recent court judgments ruling that high fines should only be decided by regular courts.
-The Cannabis Authority can also impose a compromise fine – not less than 75% of the minimum – if association members accept. This means the case won’t go to court.
-The Minister in charge of the Authority will be able to schedule new synthetic drugs that enter the market to the schedules of illegal substances through a simple legal notice.
-The Authority will be able to investigate and enforce commercial shops that sell cannabis products.
Do you agree with these new regulations?
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