There is a lacuna in Maltese law which means that someone growing cannabis for personal use automatically faces a trafficking charge, two lawyers highlighted yesterday.
In a constitutional application, lawyers Josè Herrera and Gavin Gulia, who both happen to be MPs, asked the court to declare this proviso of the law as being in breach of human rights. The application was filed in regard to their clients, Adrian Marmara, 33, of Pieta’ and Eugenio Camenzuli, 52, of Mtarfa who have pending cases.
The lawyers pointed out that when, in 1996, Malta ratified the UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, it accepted the distinction made in the convention between cultivation for personal use and for trafficking.
However, Maltese law stated that “for the purpose of this ordinance, the word dealing... includes cultivation”.
This, they argued, consisted of a discrepancy between the convention and the law which left a lacuna regarding punishment, because trafficking was not the same thing as cultivation for personal use.