Maltese Cannabis Club Applications ‘To Open In February’ As Second Timeline Announced
License applications for Malta’s first non-profit cannabis associations will open in February, Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms Rebecca Buttigieg has promised.
“We won’t sweep this reform under the rug and I can announce that by February, the Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis (ARUC) will be in a position to open applications for licenses for non-profit organisations,” Buttigieg announced in Parliament.
“Registered members will be able to purchase cannabis safely so we could eliminate trafficking.”
This is the second timeline the authorities have promised for the establishment of cannabis associations since the reform passed last year.
Former ARUC chairperson Mariella Dimech promised in January that associations will be up and running by the end of 2022 and Buttigieg backed this statement up in June.
However, this failed to materialise and Dimech was fired earlier this month, with the job going to former Housing Authority CEO Leonid McKay.
Although Dimech blamed the government for not providing her with enough resources, she also admitted that she disagreed with the political and decision strategy for ARUC, raising questions about why she even accepted the lucrative job – which comes with an €82,000 salary – in the first place.
Buttigieg said McKay is the ideal person to lead ARUC into the future and pledged to grant the authority more human resources.
Left: ARUC executive chairperson Leonid McKay, Right: His predecessor Mariella Dimech
There will be several criteria to apply for a license:
- Clean police conduct
- Business plan
- Training certificate for all employees for: a) Cultivation; b) Storage; c) Dispensation; d) Delivery from point a to point b;
- No connection to criminal organisations;
- Insurance;
- Never had a cannabis license revoked or suspended;
- Residency in Malta;
- Commit to supply all necessary data to the centralised data collection system;
- Have not been promoting or commercialising the use of cannabis.
All applications will need to provide a clear plan of action which includes plans for cultivation, storage, deliveries and dispensation.
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