Tribali’s Peter Paul Galea Discusses Cannabis Legalisation And Malta’s Drug Scene In The 90s
During a recent Jon Mallia podcast, Peter Paul Galea discussed Malta’s drug scene in the late 20th century and explained why legalising cannabis was a positive step forward.
The frontman of the Maltese band Tribali explained how, in the 1990s, many teenagers would be offered other drugs, due to the shortage of weed.
”In the past, if you went to buy marijuana, which was in shortage, you’d be offered other options, this is totally true. Today, thank god, that is slowly stopping because marijuana is more culturally accepted, and has become legalised. However, always do your own research before buying,” Galea expressed.
He then continued to praise the authorities who are slowly making marijuana legal.
Cannabis is difficult to hide, due to its smell, and voluminous nature, and many, in the past, used to be scared of the ”aggressive police” who would use physical violence and brutality – which is one of the reasons why the youth started to transition to harder drugs, like ecstasy, cocaine, and even heroin.
”Everyone loves to experiment, since marijuana was too big to carry around, to smoke you’d have to go in a corner, the smell stays on you, and teenagers still wanted to get high, they’d start to experiment with ecstasy… a pill, on the other hand, half a pill, it’s small and will take you on a good trip.”
“It’s easy to hide, and if anything happens, boom, it’s swallowed. So many were skipping the transition from marijuana, and going straight to ecstasy, and then coke, and unfortunately, some fell into heroin,” he sadly explained.
Cannabis was so stigmatised that the police would use physical aggression, even if they only slightly suspected the possession of it.
”I remember the time when the police would stop my friends in roadblocks, they’d do a search and find nothing, he’d still force you to kiss his boot, and then he’ll kick you really hard – we were really scared of the police,” Galea recalled.
Galea continued by saying that having access to good quality weed, which is natural and doesn’t contain too many chemicals, is so highly important.
”I never thought I was doing anything wrong, I felt like it was natural, and there isn’t too many chemicals in it.”
Check out the full episode on the Jon Mallia podcast here.
What are your opinions on smoking marijuana? And it being legal?
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