Did we really ‘make history’ this week? Not quite…

It’s been reported by so many international news sites, that I’m almost tempted to believe it myself. But only ‘almost’, because… well, for one thing: “if it sounds too good to be true, it very probably isn’t”…

… and for another: if it sounds so ‘absolutely fabulous’, that even world headlines describe it as ‘ground-breaking’, ‘forward-looking’, ‘a historic first’, etc…

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’ve been hoodwinked by far too many sales-pitches, over the years; or maybe it’s just the Grinch who lives inside my head, endlessly trying to steal all my optimism from right under the Christmas Tree...

But whatever it is, I still can’t help feeling vaguely sceptical. So let me just put the question across right here: did Malta really become – as reported by the BBC this week – ‘the first EU nation to legalise cannabis’ this week?

Reason I ask is… well, there are several. To start with, this would hardly the first time that international news reports about Malta somehow manage to get even their most basic facts… um, WRONG. (Like when the BBC described Simon Busuttil as ‘Malta’s Opposition leader’: a full five months after he had very publicly – and very conspicuously – stepped down from that role…)

Oh, OK: on this one, we can safely assume that the BBC did at least get the country right; and that the news itself did have something vaguely to do with ‘cannabis’.

For yes: it is undeniable that Malta’s Parliament has just approved a new bill concerning that particular drug (and the use thereof ‘for recreational purposes’). But… does that reform really add up to a full ‘legalisation’ of cannabis, as it has just been described? And if so: is it really the ‘first time’ such a thing has ever happened, across the length and breadth of Europe?

Tell you the truth, I’m not at all convinced… and some of my reasons emerge even from the same new reports themselves. Sticking to the BBC article, for now: “Under the changes, anyone carrying more than seven grams, but less than 28g could be fined up to €100. The punishment for smoking in public will be a €235 fine, and those smoking cannabis in front of anyone younger than 18 could be fined up to €500…”

There is also the small matter that, while the new law permits the cultivation of up to four plants… you could still end up facing criminal charges, if any of those plants happens to be ‘visible’ (and, presumably, ‘smellable’) by the general public….

Now: I freely admit that none of those details, on its own, outrightly contradicts the ‘legalisation’ claim. There are, after all, plenty of other things that we are ‘not allowed to do in public’… but which are entirely ‘legal’, in the privacy of our own homes. (If you don’t believe me: try taking a dump on the steps of Castile, and see what happens…)

But even accounting for that sort of thing: I, for one, still struggle to discern any real difference – at least in the intention, if not the actual execution – between this latest drug-law reform, which ‘legalised’ cannabis… and the one passed by the same Parliament way back in 2015: which was supposed to ‘decriminalise’ the same drug, in what was (at the time) an equally ‘historic’ achievement.

Now: having said that, I must also stress that the distinction itself doesn’t really matter all that much, from the perspective of those who – like me – have long been arguing for precisely for this kind of approach anyway. To put that another way: if this reform – however we choose to define it – really does succeed in at least a few of its own stated objectives:

i.e., that harmless people are no longer automatically criminalised in this country;

…or that buyers are protected from the black market by the creation of safe, legal pathways to acquire the drug;

…or that Malta’s crime-fighting infrastructure is no longer permanently ‘hijacked’, by what is effectively a low-priority issue that poses no real threat to public safety or security whatsoever…

… and if, on top of all that, we even end up with a situation like Portugal (more of which in a sec) where ‘problem drug-use’ actually decreases over time, as a result…

Well, under those circumstances, we can call it ‘legalisation’, ‘decriminalisation’, or even ‘Rudolph the Red-eyed Dope-Fiend’, for all I care. The truly important thing is that we’d be left with a drug strategy that actually WORKS, for a change (a claim which, quite frankly, cannot be made by the failed policy we are currently in the process of dismantling.)

Ah, but from the perspective of international world news coverage: would it make any difference at all, if what we just did was simply ‘decriminalise’ – as opposed to ‘legalise’ – cannabis?

Erm… yeah, I reckon it probably would. For one thing, that sort of announcement would not, strictly speaking, qualify as a ‘historic first’ even just for Malta… let alone for the European Union, or the rest of the world. (We already decriminalised that stuff almost five years ago, remember?)

Besides, there is at least one EU member state – Portugal (See? Told you I’d come back to it!) – which actually decriminalised ALL illegal drugs: not just cannabis; but heroin, cocaine, the works…  all the way back in 2001…

… which, by the way, brings me to yet another reason to doubt that headline. OK, I know you’re all going to think I’m splitting hairs, but…. when all is said and done (and, much more to the point, SIGNED) – the reality is that Malta has neither ‘legalised’, nor ‘decriminalised’, anything at all so far.

For while the bill itself has been approved by Parliamentary… fact remains that it still has to be officially endorsed by the President of the Republic; and (in case I haven’t mentioned this before) Dr George Vella is currently under ENORMOUS pressure not to actually comply, when that moment finally arrives. To which, he stated yesterday, he will assent to his constitutional obligation.

Meanwhile, I can’t help but note that the latest to add to this pressure, was none other than former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi…. who ended his Facebook tirade on the following, ominous note:

“Even if the bill is voted into law, someone has to step up and think about removing it as soon as possible using all the legitimate means.”

Was that a barb intended directly for Vella himself? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it clearly underscores the fact that this same ‘legalisation bill’ – which the entire world has already (somewhat prematurely) hailed as a ‘milestone in European legislation’, and all that – has not yet been actually enshrined into Maltese law; and this, at a time when it is under siege from almost every conceivable angle… and when there are other ‘legitimate means’ (including an abrogative referendum) that might also be invoked in future…

At which point, we can no longer ignore the precise cause of all this opposition to begin with. Another of Gonzi’s arguments – which is echoed, in different words, across the full spectrum of resistance - is that: “[he] cannot understand how a supposed socialist government which says it seeks the common good, is […] taking such a great risk which will surely have a negative effect on our society…’

Now: with a huge, (superhuman, almost) personal effort on my own part – honestly, though: the things I end up doing for others, during the Christmas season! – I will resist the temptation to spell out the more immediate irony in that statement. (Except to point out that… erm… isn’t this the same Lawrence Gonzi who had predicted ‘cataclysmic consequences’, if Malta were to ever legalise divorce? And have any of those predictions actually materialised, in entire decade since we did precisely that, in 2011? No, I didn’t think so either…)

But never mind all that, because… just as we now have a real yardstick by which to measure all those ‘doomsday prophecies’ of yesteryear… well, the same applies just as much to cannabis legalisation today.

Like I said a little farther up: Portugal has already fully decriminalised all illegal drugs, way back in 2001… yet according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction’s statistics for 2020: “Levels of drug use in Portugal have been consistently below the European average over the past twenty years.

This is particularly the case among younger people: Portugal has some of the lowest usage rates in Europe among those between the ages of 15-34… […] In the first five years after drug policy reform, use of illegal drugs rose slightly among the general population but fell again in the following five years. Use among 15-24 year olds fell throughout the decade, and among the general population was lower in 2012 than in 2001…”

Clearly, then, the statistical evidence for at least one European country suggests that: no, actually.

The consequences of a much more ‘rational’ approach to this issue– however you choose to describe it – are very far from ‘cataclysmic’ indeed. Actually, Portugal’s experience shows us that drugs become a good LESS of a problem…  in those countries which finally realise that all their past drug policies were (to put it mildly) a complete, abject failure…

But still: as things stand today, the likelihood of Malta really becoming ‘the first EU nation to legalise cannabis’ now rests only on the ability of one man – Dr George Vella – to make that long-overdue realisation for himself (where so many others before him have clearly failed).

So… not to add any undue pressure, or anything, but… Come on George! You know you can do it!