Social welfare chief urges government to ‘re-think’ cannabis legalisation

Cannabis should not be legalised the government has been told by the head of the state social welfare agency as he urged the authorities to listen to science.

The latest rebuke towards government’s electoral pledge was sounded by Alfred Grixti, the CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services and a one-time Labour Party official.

In his introduction to the Malta report that forms part of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), Grixti said the research showed that a relatively high percentage of students aged 15 and 16 do not perceive a great risk in using illicit drugs. The study was published today.

“In this context, I must urge the authorities to re-think the issue of legalisation of cannabis. I say this as a convert. In my youth, we used to argue in favour of legalisation because up till then the received wisdom was that cannabis was harmless,” Grixti said.

He also urged the authorities to listen to what science has to say. “Medical science now teaches us otherwise, and so, just as with the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to let the science inform our decision making,” he added.

Government has an electoral mandate to legalise the recreational use of cannabis, something that it has been stalling for the past three years.

There is no clear pathway ahead as to what legislation the government will propose and when.

Legalisation of cannabis use is intended to remove the substance from the realm of criminality, ensuring that users can continue to do so responsibly and cleanly.

However, government has faced flak from various quarters, including Caritas, a church organisation involved in the rehabilitation of drug addicts.

According to the ESPAD findings, 11.6% of students admitted using cannabis at least once in their lifetime.

But 33.4% of students have a perception that cannabis is ‘fairly or very easy to obtain’, which is at par with their European counterparts.