Looking back at 2021 | From reefer madness to cannabis regularisation

From imprisoning a 16-year-old Swiss student for being in possession of one gram of cannabis in 1997, to legalising recreational weed in 2021, Malta’s relationship with “reefer” has come a long way. 

Gisela Feuz, 16, made international headlines in 1997 after admitting to bringing less than 8 grammes of hash with her from Switzerland in the aim of sharing it with her boyfriend. 

She was imprisoned for a mandatory six-month period after a court found her guilty of importing drugs with the intent to traffic. Ironically, Brazilian drug-runner Francisco Assis de Queiroz, who had imported over 3kg of cocaine, benefited from a pardon to return home to Brazile after contracting hepatitis in prison. Such hypocritical applications of Maltese laws became part of the impetus to change “dangerous” drugs legalisation. 

14 years later in 2011, Daniel Holmes, 28 at the time, was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay a €23,000 fine in 2011, after he was caught together with friend Barry Lee, with possessing five mature cannabis plants and 28 seedlings. 

Holmes’s name became synonymous with Malta’s draconian laws dealing with drugs.  

By the late 2000s, the discussion around drugs in Malta started changing. In 2011, former Caritas campaigner Dr George Grech argued that a discussion on decriminalisation of drugs – then resisted by everyone, include Dr Grech himself – had become “urgent”. “It’s no secret there are drugs in prison, and we have come to learn that incarceration does not work (with) people who are purely drug addicts,” he said. “Prison is not giving results.” The suggestions were shot down by the Justice Ministry, saying that it is not open to the possibility of introducing other changes to the relevant laws.”  

Fast-forward to 2013, and the political scene in the country started shifting, as former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his government were elected into government. Just two years later in April 2015, reforms on drug decriminalisation were being introduced by the Muscat administration. New legislation saw less harsh sentencing for simple possession, more lenient court decisions to rehabilitated drug offenders and the loosening of cannabis cultivation laws. People caught with a maximum of 3.5g of cannabis, 2g of other drugs or two pills of ecstasy would be subjected to fines ranging between €65 and €125, or between €50 and €100 in the case of cannabis. They would also not appear in court, but appear before a commissioner for justice. 

However, the police would still be able to detain people caught with small quantities of drugs for up to 48 hours, so as to extract information related to drug trafficking. This clause effectively allowed the police to arrest anyone in possession of cannabis, no matter the amount.  

Pro-legalisation activists quickly realised that while legislation had improved, it still wasn’t enough. Small groups had already started forming, with a protest walk in solidarity with Daniel Holmes in 2013, showcasing the power the legalisation movement had in the country, despite the cannabis debate being in its infancy. In 2017, a fully-fledged, detailed manifesto bringing together different elements of legalisation models from around the world was presented by ReLeaf. They demanded legalisation of up to 28g per person, and the allowance to grow six plants per household.  

In March 2018, the perspective continued to change further, as amendments to the Drug Dependence Act (Treatment not Imprisonment) were enacted. The law allowed family doctors to prescribe medical cannabis to patients, who are be able to access non-smoking forms of medicine at pharmacies with a doctor's prescription after a control card has been approved by the Superintendent of Public Health. 

Labour’s 2017 electoral manifesto had proposed a national debate on the legalisation of recreational cannabis, an issue Joseph Muscat had already come out in support of. Julia Farrugia Portelli, who was then entrusted with the reform had said it was wrong for the PL to refer to it as ‘recreational’. She received harsh criticism for her statement.  

Farrugia Portelli’s statements were just a mere hiccup in Labour’s roadmap toward recreational cannabis, when Rosianne Cutajar was appointed parliamentary secretary responsible for the reform. In a surprise video 4 April 2020 marking the “international marijuana holiday” 4-20, Cutajar expressed support for an alleged 40,000 cannabis users in Malta, and that “while recreational cannabis use in Malta is not yet legal, the government has long since set out to be more sensitive to those users”. 

The debate around recreational cannabis legislation reached its climax in March 2021, after Prime Minister Robert Abela launched a public consultation process to strengthen the legal framework on the responsible use of cannabis. 

The ground-breaking law allowed the possession of up to 7g of cannabis and the growing of four plants at home. It also provided for regulated clubs from where cannabis can be sold to registered members. It received 350 submissions from a number of NGOs and individuals.  

While government was speedy in how it pushed for legislation to be introduced, overlooking and ignoring suggestions by academics and NGOs not to rush ahead with cannabis legalisation, the process was marked by a number of U-turns by the Nationalist Party. 

Opposition leader Bernard Grech claimed ownership of a proposal for regulated cannabis clubs when government published the text of the Bill. However, Grech was unable to convince his parliamentary group to support the Bill, and the PN came out against it. 

During parliamentary discussions, Grech branded the bill an “alienation” exercise from the serious matters affecting Malta like the FATF greylisting. Despite the criticism, during the committee stage, the Opposition MPs did not put forward any substantial amendments. 

In a last-ditch effort, 53 organizations and individuals petitioned parliament to amend parts of the Bill, to mitigate what they claim will be the negative impact on society. 

Even former PM Lawrence Gonzi, known for his conservative stance on a number of issues like gay marriage and civil unions, weighed in on the issue on the day of the third reading.  

The move by the EU’s smallest member state is likely to be the first of a number of nations changing their cannabis laws after the UN last year reclassified cannabis to recognise its therapeutic uses. The governments of Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland have all announced plans to establish a legally regulated market. Cannabis is still technically illegal in the Netherlands, which is famous for its cannabis coffee shops. However, there is a tolerance for the drug when it is sold in the coffee shops. And Italy will hold a referendum on the issue next year, while South Africa, Mexico, Jamaica, Portugal and a number of US states already have similar legislation in place.