It was not clear what amount of the narcotic plant khat would be considered as being for personal use or meant for trafficking, Drugs Commissioner Vicky Scicluna has told the Times of Malta.

She was commenting after it emerged that loopholes allowing the plant’s use had been closed. A Justice Ministry spokeswoman said users would face the same treatment as marijuana smokers.

“Khat may have been included in the drug reform but the quantities are not listed, so we’ll have to see how much would be considered as indicating personal use,” Ms Scicluna said.

This newspaper reported last year that the sub-Saharan drug, popular with East African migrants, was slipping through the legal net.

While the plant’s active ingredients – cathinone, cath-ine and norephedrine – were made illegal in 2006, the plant had not been added to the schedule of illegal plants. This meant that though the police would often confiscate it, those found chewing the plant would not be breaking the law and could not be prosecuted.

The ministry spokeswoman said the situation had changed late last year and the plant had been added to the schedule of illegal plants. She said simple possession of khat would be treated the same as smoking marijuana, with users facing an administrative fine on the first offence.

Repeat offenders would be processed by the new Drugs Commissioner set up as part of the drug reform. Conditions for reform would then be imposed, which could include submitting to urine or blood tests. Breaking such conditions would be considered a criminal offence.

Technically referred to as catha eduli, the psychoactive shrub is chewed until it releases the active ingredients that give users an uplifting high often described as similar to drinking a lot of coffee.

Forensic expert Mario Mifsud, who consulted the government on the drug reform, said that although there appeared to be a steady flow of the substance to the island, its consumption remained mostly confined to Somalis and Eritreans, who have it brought over by family and friends living in the UK.

“The majority of our khat comes in from Heathrow. There is a market there where it is sold on Thursday and it arrives in Luqa a few days later, usually in suitcases weighing 20 kilos,” he said.

In 2011, a record number of suitcases loaded with the plant were seized by the Maltese authorities in a clampdown on the substance.