Man, 27, to be arraigned over 'significant' drugs find

The police are today expected to arraign a 27-year-old man from Qormi after he was allegedly found in possession of 10 bars of cannabis resin, weighing 2.5 kilos, on Wednesday afternoon.

The man was stopped at Tal-Handaq following several days of observation.

Police sources said the find was one of the most significant drug seizures so far this year.

Some two kilos of cannabis plants were found in Gozo in January.

The sources said that across Europe there was an increase in demand for cannabis and a drop in demand of hard drugs. It was not unusual for the pattern in Malta to follow suit.

Drug squad police made other important drug finds this year. About 20 grammes of heroin were seized in a raid on a Gzira apartment in January. Last month, a Gozitan was charged after he was allegedly found in possession of 40 grammes of cocaine. There was also a find of 20 grammes cocaine recently.

Last month, a Libyan was charged with importing 200 grammes of heroin into Malta after swallowing drug-filled capsules. The man was arraigned after he was apprehended following his escape from hospital, while he was under observation.

Earlier this month, the police charged a man with drug trafficking after he was found in possession of 29 sachets of heroin near the detox centre.

Drug related arrests are, very often, extremely risky for the police. Police officers have often testified in court about how a drug operation turned into a car chase or fights involving weapons that sometimes end up with people being charged with trying to kill or hurt officers.

The drug problem has many ugly facets: a number of overdoses, some fatal, occur each year. There was one fatal drug overdose so far this year, but between 1999 and 2004, 31 fatal overdoses, an average of six overdose deaths a year. Heroin was abused in 95 per cent of fatal overdoses. Of these fatal overdoses, 27 involved males whose mean age was 32 years, data collected by the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity show.

Between 1995 and 2003, there were 277 non-fatal overdoses caused by illicit drugs.

Reasons why people overdose vary: some could be extra-confident about their level of tolerance to the substance or the person changes the supplier, who would have a drug of different purity to which the abuser is used to.

Heavy drug users tend to overdose but there have been reported cases of both fatal and non-fatal overdoses by people who had just started dabbling in drugs.

Information given in Parliament shows that 14 babies were born to drug abusers last year. Babies born to addicts are often born with an addiction and suffer withdrawal symptoms.

A total of 801 persons are receiving a service from the Detox Centre. Just over 1,000 attended the centre in 2004. Close to 7,000 syringes were handed out to abusers from health centres in the last nine days of last year.

Almost half were handed out from Paola health centre, while the rest were handed out from the Floriana, Mosta, Gzira, Cospicua, Rabat and Qormi health centres.