Five new illicit substances were found in Malta last week, drug expert Godwin Sammut said yesterday.

The drug substances, a combination of synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic cathinones, had been detected elsewhere in Europe but never before in Malta, Mr Sammut added.

On average, the university’s Chemistry Department found about one new drug a week that could be considered synthetic, he pointed out, adding that synthetic drugs probably made their way here from China.

In his opinion, such a big number of new drugs being found was quite unique. However, Mr Sammut insisted there was “no need to panic”, because the drug team was working closely with the police and the Customs Department.

Although there were some synthetic drugs that had not been regulated by law, Maltese legislation covered many of the derivatives of cathinones, he noted.

READ: Maltese drug scene's latest highs are made in China

The authorities are looking at other countries for how their laws cover derivatives and synthetic cannabinoids

“The government is focusing on other substances, with efforts being made to cover most of the synthetic drugs,” Mr Sammut said.

Some synthetic cannabinoids are regulated, and talks are ongoing to widen laws in order to ensure that all kinds of derivatives are controlled.

He said the authorities were looking at other European countries to see how their laws covered derivatives and synthetic cannabinoids, even those that were still to enter the country.

The drug team reports acquisitions of new seizures to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, which then compiled the information in its annual European drug report.

The report last year found that illegal drugs in Malta were among the cheapest in Europe. The Times of Malta reported cocaine found here was smuggled mainly through Spain, sold at about €64 a gram and had a purity rate of 15 per cent.

Mr Sammut has warned that the use of synthetic cathinones was on the rise, with many moving away from the use of “traditional drugs” such as heroin.

Synthetic cathinones are drugs that European Union health officials described as “new psychoactive substances”. The mind-altering drugs are intended to emulate the effects of other illegal drugs such as cocaine or heroin.

More commonly known as “bath salts”, synthetic cathinones are human-made stimulants chemically related to a substance found in the khat plant.

Grown in East Africa and Southern Arabia, some people chew the plant for its mild stimulant effects.

Human-made versions of cathinones may be much stronger and much more dangerous than the natural product.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.