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4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 JANUARY 2019 NEWS In 2019 • Recreational cannabis CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Countries which legalised cannabis in recent years have each implemented various models, ranging from market liberalisation, with private operators running 'cannabis clubs' where each patron is granted a limited amount of cannabis, to a nationalised dispensary system. Farrugia Portelli was evasive on the "user registration platform" would work, saying that the government's in- tention is to "educate users and drive them away from, or reduce their de- pendence, on [THC] the psychoactive ingredient." Farrugia Portelli pointed out that this harm-reduction approach means the government would need to find a way to determine how much cannabis users consume. A public consultation will be launched on the policy. This means that, unlike some coun- tries where cannabis is legally available, Malta will not have any coffee shops or cannabis clubs. "We will have a compli- mentary law enforcement package that will increase the efficiency and effec- tiveness of policing," Farrugia Portelli said. Three perspectives to cannabis When in 2017, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat pledged to initiate a discussion on regulating cannabis, many assumed it would only be a matter of time before Malta became the next Amsterdam. Cannabis reform may not be so sim- ple. While gay marriage and IVF laws caused controversy mainly from an ethical and religious perspective, re- forming drug laws is, primarily, a mat- ter of public health. Therefore, it is no surprise that authorities are taking their time with the reform. According to Farrugia Portelli, the is- sue must be addressed from three an- gles: medical, manufacturing and rec- reational. From the medical side, in 2015 the law was amended to allow the plant to be used for medicinal purposes. A further amendment was approved by parlia- ment last year, making it easier for doc- tors to prescribe the medication to their patients. Last year, parliament also ap- proved a law allowing licensed compa- nies to manufacture medicinal cannabis in Malta, with several multinational companies operating in the sector al- ready having established a presence on the island. Recreational use remains the most delicate of the three areas. In 2015 can- nabis use was decriminalised, meaning that simple possession is no longer a criminal offence. Farrugia Portelli said that consultation undertaken with stakeholders had been an eye opener in terms of appreciating the prevalence of cannabis use and said the government's approach will be to focus on harm reduction and to "delay the onset of experimentation". Policy based on the Icelandic model According to the latest available Euro- pean School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD), 13% of 15 to 16-year-old Maltese students said they had used cannabis, while 14% said they had been drunk in the last 30 days. With this in mind, Farrugia Portelli said government would be spearhead- ing an educational campaign on the dangers of using any form of substance and by instilling "the right coping skills at various ages to say no to alcohol, to- bacco and drugs". The government, she said, hoped to put the necessary building blocks in place to "contribute to a healthier soci- ety". "Our reform is inspired by the Icelan- dic model which has a history of suc- cess," she said, adding that government was looking to the experiences of other countries. Since Iceland implemented its strat- egy, the country's youth population has gone from among the heaviest drinkers in Europe to the healthiest. The num- ber of students who reported having been drunk in the last 30 days fell from 42% in 1998 to 5% in 2016, while those claiming to have used cannabis dropped from 17% to 7% during the same period. The strategy was based on the obser- vation that, generally speaking, surveys with teens repeatedly showed that fac- tors like sport, feeling cared about at school, or spending a lot of time out of the house at night, correlated with a re- duced likelihood of substance abuse. Therefore, laws were reformed to ad- dress these issues: the legal age to buy alcohol and cigarettes was raised, and school councils with parent representa- tives were established. Children be- tween 13 and 16 were also prohibited from being outside after certain times. It was also observed that one reason people use drugs is that it helps them feel part of a group. To discourage this, the Icelandic government increased funding for organised sports, music and art to give children the opportunity to form part of different groups. While the model has worked well for Iceland, Farrugia Portelli insisted there was no one-size-fits-all model, and that the government would develop a "Mal- tese model" reflecting the needs of Mal- tese society. Ultimately, she said that the reform would be based on four main pillars: education, alternative means of recrea- tion, re-engineering of support services into "a proactive social service" and "regulating the use of the psychoactive ingredient in the cannabis plant". Public consultation by end of 2019 Having met with a wide range of stake- holders over the 18 months, efforts are now underway to start an educational campaign in the first half of the year. Farrugia Portelli said the government was currently in the process of evaluat- ing the educational material currently in circulation in order to improve it and ensure the best possible content, format and delivery. She said the main targets would ini- tially be students aged between 10 and 16, as well as their parents and teachers. This would then be followed by a cam- paign aimed at the general population, culminating in the launch of a public consultation document at the end of the year. Will 2019 bring with it a shift in the way Malta thinks about cannabis? For over a year now, the government has been consulting with stakeholders on a way to reform cannabis laws. Julia Farrugia Portelli, the parliamentary secretary piloting the reform, says Malta will be creating its own model based on the local context "Our reform is inspired by the Icelandic model which has a history of success." Since Iceland implemented its strategy, the country's youth population has gone from among the heaviest drinkers in Europe to the healthiest. The number of students who reported having been drunk in the last 30 days fell from 42% in 1998 to 5% in 2016, while those claiming to have used cannabis dropped from 17% to 7% during the same period.