Police are finding it difficult to prosecute people making use of new synthetic drugs which have yet to be regulated by law, according to a forensic expert.

Marisa Cassar, director of BioDNA Laboratory Services Ltd, a Maltese-owned biotechnology company, pointed out that two new synthetic drugs were found in Europe every week.

She lamented that information on new drugs in Malta was, unfortunately, not compiled in one database. Thus, she continued, a toxicology team did not have access to a central pool of information on police drug finds.

She suggested that setups handling data compilation, such as the National Statistics Office, should also keep a record of new drugs entering the country.

Furthermore, laws dealing with drugs should be updated constantly to reflect the influx of newly emerging synthetic drugs. There was a need to widen legal provisions so new drugs could be immediately registered once traced in Malta, Dr Cassar said.

READ: How do scientists identify new synthetic drugs?

Legal provisions had to be wide enough to cover molecular composition, as that was the only way Customs would be able to remain on top of new incoming drugs, she insisted.

Accessing synthetic drugs was far easier nowadays, as they could even be obtained online, Dr Cassar pointed out, adding that government officials should be subjected to random urine tests.

The same applied to bus drivers, given their responsibility for others’ lives. Such tests were commonplace elsewhere, yet here they were made only if there was reasonable suspicion of drug use.

The lab also analyses drug samples, looking into their molecular composition, extracting and matching each one with drugs found in other EU Member States.