Archbishop Paul Cremona.

Decriminalising cannabis use could lead people to forget the negative effects of the drug and possibly start using it, Archbishop Paul Cremona said yesterday.

In a reference to the recently published White Paper on drug reform, Mgr Cremona raised concerns that removing criminal penalties from cannabis use would send out a message that using the drug was OK.

“Telling people that the drug is OK could end up with more people using it. We cannot send out that message,” he warned.

Published on Monday, the consultation document suggests cannabis users no longer face criminal proceedings and instead be processed by a traffic-style tribunal empowered to hand out administrative fines.

The Archbishop referred to recent studies which found that attempts at decriminalising drug use in the US had led to a rise in the number of users.

Other studies, he added, had found a strong correlation between the increase in drug use and the decrease in the severity of penalties for users.

“Drugs are not bad because they are illegal but illegal because they are bad. We have to keep this in mind when trying to map out a way forward,” he said.

Earlier this week Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna had said he was “apprehensive” about decriminalising cannabis use. He will be meeting members of the Church who have dedicated their lives to helping victims of addiction to discuss the White Paper before commenting further. He also urged all members of society to form part of the debate.

Mgr Cremona was yesterday addressing guests at the graduation of 20 former addicts who completed a nine-month rehabilitation programme at the Caritas Centre in San Blas.

Assistant director of Caritas Mgr Carm Farrugia was also critical of the proposed decriminalisation of cannabis.

During the opening speech, he argued that while he understood the need for change, he could not accept drug use, even if this was limited to certain drug types. He insisted no distinction should be made between different drugs as they were all harmful, whether ‘hard’ or ‘soft’.

On the introduction of a specific drugs court, Mgr Farrugia said he agreed and that the Church rehabilitation service had been calling for this for some time.

In an overview of the services offered by the San Blas centre, Mgr Farrugia said the majority of heroin users treated by Caritas over the past year had started taking the drug as young as 14.

In the case of cocaine, he said, most users started at 16.

Last year Caritas helped 613 drug addicts, a 26 per cent increase compared to 10 years ago. The NGO started its programmes 30 years ago.

Eighty five per cent of those treated by Caritas over the past year were men and nearly half were unemployed at the time of starting their rehabilitation. Five per cent could not work because of their addiction while seven per cent were students.

When it came to women who sought help for their addiction, Mgr Farrugia said the vast majority of had undergone some form of mental or physical trauma prior to their addiction.

This, he said, made their treatment a more painstaking process than in the case of male addicts.

Over the past 10 years, those undergoing rehabilitation were getting older, he pointed out.

In fact, the average age of those treated last year was between 27 and 34, more than 10 years older than back in 2004.

Those treated for cocaine addiction had increased by 25 per cent, highlighting the drug as one of the main problem substances on the island.

As many as a third of the reforming addicts treated last year used cocaine along with other drugs, the same number that also used cannabis.