Malta’s pioneering cannabis regularisation experiment seems to be paying dividends, at least when it comes to freeing up police and court resources.

It’s no secret that the island’s justice system is clogged up, with people facing years – sometimes over a decade – being churned through the justice system once sucked into it.

But with Malta allowing the simple possession of up to 7 grams per person as well as cultivating four plants per private household, a whole segment of the Maltese population suddenly found that they were not at risk of being arrested on the daily.

Since December, 2021, a total of zero people have been arrested for the simple possession of cannabis on the island, new numbers shared by the Malta Police Force with Lovin Malta reveal.

During that same period, three people were arrested in relation to drug trafficking and drug importation involving much larger amounts of the plant.

These numbers are in stark contrast to what the island was seeing just a year ago. Police were prosecuting people for the simple possession of cannabis at a rate of one person a day, with many of them being first time offenders.

Between September 2015 and December 2020, 1,897 people were hauled in front of the drugs tribunal. 90% of these were first time offenders, and six out of ten of each sitting regarded a small amount of cannabis possession.