Although heroin is undoubtedly Malta’s greatest drug-related problem, statistics concerning its prevalence are skewed by the country’s good treatment facilities, a leading drug expert has said.
Basically every heroin user in Malta can access treatment at the detoxification centre
“Our estimates for heroin use are so high for two reasons,” the chair of the National Commission on the Abuse of Alcohol, Drugs and Other Dependencies, Marilyn Clark said. “Firstly, users seek and obtain treatment earlier in their addiction than in other countries. Secondly, Malta’s small size means that all heroin users can access treatment.”
Dr Clark was commenting following the release of a report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, which found that heroin in Malta was among the purest in Europe and that its use was more widespread than the EU average.
According to the report, heroin samples in Malta were up to 36 per cent pure, whereas those in other countries ranged from 16 to 32 per cent purity.
The report also found that there were 5.4 cases of heroin use in Malta for every 1,000 people – higher than the 3.6 to 4.4 incidence per 1,000 across the rest of the EU.
The Justice Ministry said yesterday that while some of the report’s findings were cause for concern and that more intensive efforts were needed to quell the use of heroin, a lot was already being done.
The Ministry said that although drug-induced deaths in Malta were slightly higher than the EU average, over-emphasising the report’s findings concerning heroin purity was tantamount to distorting the issue, given that a drug’s purity depended on its origin.
Dr Clark’s comments were echoed by another source with several years of drug rehabilitation experience, who however declined to be named.
“Malta’s drug rehabilitation facilities are especially geared towards opiate use, such as heroin. These users know that they can receive excellent treatment at the methadone clinic, and are more likely to go and receive treatment there,” the source said.
“Basically every heroin user in Malta can access treatment at the detoxification centre. Abroad, you might get users who live hours away from their nearest centre, or who aren’t aware of existing facilities. This tends to skew our use statistics.”
While heroin prevalence was higher in Malta than the EU average, the country ranked lower than many other EU countries for cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamine use.
This could partially be explained, the source felt, by Malta’s island nature. “Heroin is a declining drug in many western European countries – users are more aware of its life-wrecking effects and are more interested in stimulant-style drugs such as cocaine to go with their lifestyle,” the source said.
Malta, however, has yet to exhibit such a move away from heroin. “It may be part of our island’s insularity. Like many other things, emerging drug use trends take a while to manifest themselves in Malta”.
Dr Clark noted that heroin users were much more likely to seek treatment than users of other drugs and therefore more likely to occur in drug use statistics.
“Cocaine use is on the increase but cocaine users don’t seek treatment,” Dr Clark said. “It is problem drug users who present themselves for treatment, and those tend to be heroin users.”
She observed a growing trend in the use of new synthetic drugs, which bypassed existing drug laws by being chemically engineered from legal substances while mimicking the effects of banned drugs. Most of these synthetics are sold as cannabis substitutes.
Governments are struggling to deal with such synthetic drugs, as manufacturers simply modify the chemical composition of a substance as soon as it is made illegal.
Dr Clark explained that the National Commission had commissioned a study into the use of such synthetic drugs, with the aim of presenting the government with a recommendation on how to best tackle such drugs.