Drug law reform is finally on the government’s agenda after years of drug legislation drift under previous Nationalist administrations. Over the years, the debate in Malta has swung between the headline-catching, but now widely discredited, policy of a ‘war on drugs’, to decriminalisation and legalisation in certain specific cases, and medical and social rehabilitation.
It is now widely recognised in most civilised countries and by world health authorities that drug users should be regarded by society as people who need medical help, not retribution.
Careful decriminalisation, or even legalisation, and treatment are now the practical way forward.
There is acceptance that the personal use of drugs should be treated as a social, not a judicial issue. It is also accepted that there should be a clear distinction between the way the law treats users and traffickers.
The government’s amendments to the current legislation will not begin to be debated until the House returns from its summer recess on October 15. Its draft law on drugs is enlightened and in keeping with the approach being adopted in most advanced European countries.
It proposes that users found in simple possession for the first time would appear before a justice commissioner, who would give warnings and impose administrative fines on the user. Repeat offenders would appear before a board that would set conditions for rehabilitation.
The reforms would not remove all criminal deterrents for drug use. The government is proposing that breaking the conditions set for repeat offenders would be viewed as a criminal offence.
The use of cannabis would enjoy its own special status and users will only be facing a fine. Conditions for rehabilitation or other sanctions would only be imposed in extraordinary or exceptional cases, thus acknowledging the effective decriminalisation of cannabis.
While the steps that the government has in mind have been broadly welcomed, the realisation is dawning that such a change of approach will require considerable alterations not only to the rehabilitation infrastructure supporting the treatment of drug users but also, as importantly, the judicial process.
The first salvo in the process has already been fired by Madam Justice Edwina Grima who pointed out that magistrates presiding over drug offences did not have the tools to help them to reach the right decision in such cases. She called for better links between the judiciary and social workers and probation officers.
Justice Minister Owen Bonnici was quick to acknowledge that having the right judicial tools to deal with drug cases under the new legislation would be crucial. Indeed, the system would become a travesty and unworkable without a proper social, rehabilitation and judicial underpinning the new system.
He has focused especially on the need to better assess drug cases. He rightly proposes, therefore, to have social workers sitting alongside members of the judiciary to advise them on drug-related cases. He is also contemplating the establishment of a standing committee – possibly under his own chairmanship – that would bridge the gap between the social and legal aspects of drug-related crime, made up of drug experts and professionals in the drug field who would liaise with law enforcers as well as the judiciary.
While having a standing committee may seem like overkill, it is clear the minister is well seized of the vital importance of ensuring that the new drug laws work effectively. This implies the need for a seamless liaison and understanding between the law enforcement officers, the judiciary, the social workers, the medical and other specialists in the field.