Just under half of the inmates at Corradino Correctional Facility had a history of drug use prior to being jailed, according to an EU agency report.
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) reported that 43% of those who were sentenced to jail had abused illicit substances before they entered prison.
The agency said the data made available to it by the Maltese authorities in this regard covered 2014.
The researchers noted that most prisoners undergoing drug therapy in prison were given opioid substitution treatment (OST). This was initiated at a hospital’s forensic unit and the inmates would then be transferred back to prison once they were stable. In addition, protocols were in place for the transfer of inmates to selected drug rehabilitation units.
The analysis also showed that just under half of drug-related admissions to hospital in 2017 resulted from cocaine abuse. Although the trend was widespread across Europe, with cocaine being the drug most commonly found to be involved in hospital presentations in the year under review, Malta’s rate is the third-highest in Europe.
In Italy, just under 60% of those admitted to hospital because of drug use had abused cocaine, with the figure dropping to 50% in Spain. They were the only two countries to register rates higher than Malta’s.
The researchers also noted that differences in the drugs involved in emergency admissions appeared to reflect variations in hospital catchment areas and local patterns of use. For example, emergencies involving amphetamines were most common in the north and east of Europe, whereas admission related to cocaine were predominant in the south and west of Europe, they said.
The European monitoring centre reported 13 kilograms of heroin and 0.3 kilograms of cocaine were confiscated in 2017. Less than 0.1 kilos of amphetamines and 405 tablets of MDMA, MDA and MDEA were seized as well as 591 kilos of cannabis resin, 0.2 kilos of herbal cannabis and 11 cannabis plants.
The report acknowledged that cannabis was the most frequently-seized drug in Malta, pointing out it is “the only illicit drug known to be produced in the country, mostly on a small scale”.
“Cannabis resin from Morocco is imported via Tunisia and Libya. Heroin of Afghan origin is imported via Turkey, North Africa or Western European countries and cocaine is smuggled to Malta mainly through Spain. Synthe- tic stimulant drugs such as MDMA/ecstasy and amphetamine are imported from other European countries, particularly Italy and the Netherlands. The availability of new psychoactive substances (NPS) is low but it has grown in recent years,” the researchers reported.