A 39-year-old Gozitan woman has been jailed for 30 months after being convicted of drug trafficking, with a magistrate expressing his concern over the drug problem and insisting no form of drugs should be legalised. 

The woman was arrested in March 2010 after a search in a Sannat bar and residence turned up drugs.

The woman initially claimed she had not known anything about the drugs. Another man told the police that he had bought heroin and sold heroin to her.  

Ms Refalo later admitted to have been a drug user for 10 years.

After considering the evidence and caselaw, magistrate Joe Mifsud found the accused guilty of trafficking. 

He said this was a very serious crime as drugs were ruining Maltese society.

Drug abuse was spreading in an impressive way, backed by a market that knew no frontiers. One could not surrender or make compromises with something that was harmful, he insisted.

The problem would not go away and would not harm be reduced if one was to allow users to use psychotic drugs.

"The legalisation, or even part legalisation of so-called soft drugs is not only disputed on the legislative level, but is does not achieve the desired aims. 

"I insist, as I have said before, that we should say No to all forms of drugs. Period. But to say no, we also need to say yes to life, yes to love, yes to others, yes to education, yes to sport, yes to jobs and yes for more job opportunities," Magistrate Mifsud said, quoting Pope Francis during the 31st edition of the International Drug Enforcement Conference held in 2014.

The accused was jailed for 30 months and fined €1,000.