Alternattiva Demokratika has thanked tenor and Malta’s ambassador for culture Joseph Calleja for showing solidarity with a Briton serving a 10-year jail term for growing five cannabis plants at his apartment in Gozo.

Daniel Holmes’ case has become a cause célèbre for drug reform campaigners. Mr Calleja said that like other countries, Malta should differentiate between drugs.

Mr Holmes’ appeal is set to be heard on October 31.

AD chairman Arnold Cassola said the two main political parties should wake up to the real problems facing Maltese society.

“When are they going to listen to Alternattiva Demokratika and people like (former European Court of Human Rights judge) Giovanni Bonello and Joseph Calleja, who are endorsing AD’s proposal for changes in the drug laws to ensure that drugs for personal use are decriminalised?”

AD’s social policy spokesman Robert Callus said Mr Holmes never sold cannabis yet received a sentence the equivalent of trafficking hard drugs simply because the law is “wrong beyond belief”.

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