The man behind Saturday’s pro-cannabis demonstration is facing criminal charges for growing the plant in his balcony, the same crime that recently landed Daniel Holmes with an 11-year jail term.

I have a personal interest in seeing the sale of cannabis being taken out of the hands of criminals

“I’m charged with cultivating two plants, which, under Maltese law, is considered trafficking,” David Caruana, 29, said, stressing that he grew the plants strictly for his own use, to stop “financing a black market”.

Mr Caruana, who works with an online business and studies social sciences at the Open University, was caught last year. He presumes the police got tipped off by a neighbour.

This happened after he began publicly campaigning for legalisation some three years ago when he set up the Facebook group Legalise It Malta. He does not believe the police raid was linked to his activism.

Although his voluntary public admission exposes him to accusations of having a vested interest in holding a demonstration, he makes no apologies.

“I have a personal interest in seeing the right of individuals to have authority over their body respected.

“I have a personal interest in seeing that the sick, who could benefit from this plant, are given the proper opportunity to heal or make their lives better.

“I have a personal interest in seeing the sale of cannabis being taken out of the hands of criminals. And, yes, I have a personal interest to remain a free man since I did not harm anyone,” he said.

He said his interest in the substance was boosted when his mother got cancer and became the seventh member of his extended family to die from the disease.

“You feel helpless when you come across peer reviewed medical papers which suggest cannabis use not only cures or prevents the spread of certain cancers but even prevents them from happening in the first place.

“So my activism is also fuelled by a sense of guilt for not bringing this to light and making a whole fuss about this issue when I could have possibly saved the life of someone so close to me.”

Mr Caruana said his beliefs were strengthened during a recent year of travelling during which he got more connected to “Mother Earth”. “Having one of her fruits made illegal became more of a concept that I could not understand,” he said, stressing that the fibre of cannabis plant (hemp) also has important industrial uses, even as a bio-fuel.

Some 700 people have confirmed their attendance at Saturday’s protest on Facebook.

As part of the protest, Mr Caruana has compiled 13 proposed legal amendments, which call for the legalisation of possession and cultivation of marijuana, within specific limits, for people aged over 21.

Expert’s take

Psychiatrist Anton Grech, who in 2008 was applauded by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations for his research related to cannabis, disagrees that the substance should be legalised.

He says cannabis has both physical and psychological harmful effects and his own studies proved cannabis contributes to the development of serious mental illness.

Cannabis has both physical and psychological harmful effects

“People who smoke cannabis have a greater chance of developing schizophrenia and those who suffer from schizophrenia and smoke cannabis have a worse outcome of their illness.”

Dr Grech acknowledges that components of cannabis can have beneficial effects and that research attempts to see how these components can be used to cure mental illness. “The problem is that there are many variations of street cannabis. The proportion of the beneficial components varies but they always have harmful components.”

Therefore, he says, it does not make sense to provide cannabis as treatment but to produce medicines that contain only the beneficial components.

Dr Grech says people caught using cannabis should not be sent to prison but provided help to overcome addiction. However, he does not agree with legalising or decriminalising the drug because of the “bad experience” of other countries.

“I have just been to Holland where they are having second thoughts about their legal approach to cannabis.

“In England, following the decriminalisation of cannabis, the admissions to psychiatric hospitals of youths with schizophrenia have increased significantly,” he says. adding that the UK’s Independent newspaper publicly apologised for campaigning for decriminalisation years ago.

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