Illegal drugs on the Maltese market are among the cheapest and of the lowest quality in Europe.
The annual European Drug Report, research published last week, found the purity of cocaine, heroin and MDMA (ecstasy) sold to local drug users was all among the lowest in Europe, with prices to match.
Cannabis smokers, however, pay some of the highest prices for extremely low-potency marijuana, according to the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
The report found that cocaine, smuggled mainly through Spain, was sold in Malta for around €64 a gram and had a purity rate of just 15 per cent.
Heroin, mostly imported from Turkey through North Africa or Western Europe, was similarly priced at around €60 a gram with 20 per cent purity.
The Times of Malta has previously reported that heroin seized by local authorities was often found to contain ‘fillers’ including coffee, paracetamol, lactose and sucrose powder.
Substances such as Valium are sometimes cut with the drug to enhance the high, creating a potentially deadly combination.
While no data was made available on the purity of MDMA on the island, average prices were found to be around €9 per tablet, compared to prices across Europe ranging from less than a euro in the Netherlands to as much as €60 in Ireland.
For the Maltese drug market, the notable exception in terms of pricing was herbal cannabis, the only illicit drug cultivated locally, which is sold for an average of €18 per gram, whereas the very top of the European price range is €31.
Cannabis resin, which is largely imported from Tunisia and Libya, is even more expensive at around €25 per gram, although prices can rise to €47 in other European countries.
The average potency of these drugs – measured by the quantity of the psychoactive chemical THC – was just six and seven per cent, respectively.
Across Europe, potency can reach 87 per cent for resin and 46 per cent for herbal cannabis.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said during the election campaign that the government would kick-start a national discussion on the legalisation of cannabis, with the Opposition also in favour of a debate on the subject.
“I am concerned by the notion of my children experimenting with drugs, but at the same time I understand that maintaining its illegal status favours traffickers,” Dr Muscat said in May.
The European Drug Report, which is based on statistical data from 2015, also found that cannabis resin remained the most prevalent drug seized in Malta that year, with 70 kilos confiscated in 132 major seizures.
In total, the number of illicit drug seizures in Malta has doubled since 2009.
The second most common drug seized in 2015 was cocaine: 21 kilos of it, up from five the previous year.
Four kilograms each of heroin and herbal cannabis were confiscated that year, while in the case of MDMA, methamphetamine and amphetamine, the seizures amounted to under one kilogram each.