If a person is caught for the first time in possession of a small amount of drugs for personal use, it does not mean that it is his or her first experience in the use of illicit drugs. Their addiction may have been going on for quite a number of months or even years.

The very fact that a person is apprehended with drugs in a small amount means that that specific drug is not supported by a medical prescription and not registered in the records of a pharmacy register kept for that purpose. This is the law together with its penalties. Consequently ,this is where the decriminalisation comes in.

May I suggest that in such a situation, the person should first and foremost be sent to rehabilitation straight away whatever his/her circumstances. We would surely set an example to other countries that we mean business in the rehabilitation of drug addicts.

Moreover, it is an opportunity to use another fishing rod to catch several big fish, this time being drug dealers.

Hopefully this time round we will be luckier, unlike with the expectation we had some time ago of catching another type of big fish, the one which tampered with meters.