The proposed drug reform would bring Malta in line with the new direction adopted by the United Nations’ health body, drug expert Mario Mifsud told The Sunday Times of Malta.
He was reacting to a recent report published by the UN’s World Health Organisation, which called on governments to “work towards developing policies and laws that decriminalise injection and other use of drugs and, thereby, reduce incarceration”.
A former director of the National Forensics Lab, Dr Mifsud said the proposals reflected those put forward in a White Paper on drug reform published last month.
The consultation document, due to be tabled in Parliament after the summer recess, proposes that cannabis users no longer face court proceedings, and instead be processed by a traffic-style tribunal.
This would also apply to first-time use of all other drugs, while repeat offenders would be given strict rehabilitation conditions to follow.
Although users would be spared court proceedings under the proposals, repeat offenders could still wind up before a magistrate if they do not adhere to the conditions set by a new watchdog.
More entities are calling for drug use to be treated as a health and social problem
Dr Mifsud is advising Parliament on a wide ranging review on drug related policies and said that both the White Paper and the WHO suggestions were a natural reaction to the failings of the war on drugs.
“This was inevitable. The proposals are a reaction to the shortcomings of the current system of punishing users.
“We are seeing more and more entities call for drug use to be treated as a health and social problem rather than a criminal one,” he said.
The WHO report is aimed at preventing, diagnosing and treating HIV among “key populations”, including drug users. And, although it is a branch of the United Nations, the proposals actually go against the UN’s current position on drug use.
The 1988 UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs calls for all countries to “establish as a criminal offence, the possession, purchase, or cultivation of narcotic drugs for personal consumption”.
Asked what he felt prompted the about-face, Dr Mifsud said WHO was “jumping on the band wagon” of several UN agencies that had started to contradict the international community’s “failed” position on drugs.
One such entity, the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, an independent body convened by the United Nations, had called on governments to “offer help rather than punish those who turn to drugs” back in 2012.
“It seems inevitable that Europe and indeed the rest of the international community will have to turn towards decriminalising drugs. This is further proof of that,” Dr Mifsud said.