Parliamentary Secretary for Health Chris Fearne yesterday issued the strongest warning yet to people who thought they would be able to hijack the system under the pretext that they were distributing cannabis to others for medicinal use.

Speaking during the debate in second reading of the Drug Dependence (Treatment and Imprisonment) Bill, Mr Fearne said that under Clause 10 of the Bill, “a specialist consultant physician shall be entitled to prescribe medicinal preparations containing extracts of the plant cannabis” under certain conditions.

Not a loophole intended for those who use cannabis to pretend it is for medicinal use

He said this was not a loophole intended for those who used cannabis to “pretend” that it was for medicinal use. The use would have to be for genuine reasons and regulated by professionals.

Pharmaceutical products made from cannabis needed to be protected by law so that a medical professional could prescribe it.

Medicinal marijuana could not be bought off the street or online but had to be prescribed by a specialist.

There needed to be specific medical guidelines on how prescriptions could be written, with protocols and regulations so that no extra pressure would be placed on doctors.

There would be a peer review mechanism, so that doctors would have the duty and obligation to consult with their colleagues.

He then turned to Clause 11, which concerned the protection which would be given to a person who helped an overdose victim.

One often heard of people who were left to die alone even though it would be obvious they were not alone at the time they were abusing drugs. However the other person or persons would have fled out of fear of ending up in prison.

Because of this clause, the law would look more favorably on a person who was caught in possession of drugs for personal use if he stayed to help an overdose victim, and if it was a more serious offence, the sentence would be reduced by one notch.

This was being done for the good of the whole of Maltese society, in order to make it easier to catch drug traffickers, he said. Mr Fearne stressed that the government would continue to exercise zero tolerance for drug traffickers but this law would make it easier for addicts who wanted to rehabilitate themselves to come forward.

As the law stood at present, an addict would be incriminating himself if he turned in a drug trafficker but with this new legislation the small-time users, who were often victims, could instead aid police enforcement.