Public consultation phase of drug law reform over, Ministry announces

The Ministry for Justice and Reform of the Construction Sector has announced the end of public consultation on its controversial White Paper for the reform of Malta’s drugs laws.

In a statement on Saturday the Ministry said it had welcomed submissions from stakeholders and citizens, who had “showed a positive response” during the public consultation. 

The proposed reforms, it said, are “aimed at achieving a just and effective balance between justice being done and the rehabilitation of the victims of drugs.” 

Meetings had been held with organisations that help people fighting drug addiction, Sedqa, Caritas and OASI amongst them, as well as with the public, the ministry said.
Last month, Sedqa had publicly disagreed with a proposed raising of the upper threshold of amounts of drugs found in possession that can be tried by a specialised drugs court. 

The Minister, Jonathan Attard, said that “the notable volume of positive submissions during the public consultation are the best evidence of how necessary this reform was.” 

Attard said the Government would continue with its efforts to fight drug trafficking. “We went to those who are in daily contact with real victims of drug dependency.These experiences fuel our determination not to slam doors in the faces of genuine victims of this social scourge who want to rehabilitate themselves or others who have already started this process.”

The Minister also said he noted that “even those who had, for entire weeks, appealed for the withdrawal of this reform have today recognised how necessary it is and had agreed with the absolute majority of the proposals.”

The Ministry said it would now analyse the submissions that it had received before moving on to the next step, which is translating them into law.

The Ministry statement comes just a few hours after the former chairperson of the Association for the Responsible Use of Cannabis (ARUC) said in a radio interview that the law decriminalising cannabis use, introduced three years ago, had been approved without consideration to its potential impact on society.