Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1185664
MATTHEW VELLA A draconian, six-month prison sentence for a woman whose cannabis sapling had not yet produced any buds, might well be one of the most egregious cases in which Malta's sup- posed drug reform is failing. Marie Claire Camilleri is ap- pealing the six-month prison sentence but has been shocked by the severity of the court's de- cision, which she says is "totally out of synch" with the spirit of the drugs reform heralded by the Labour government. "It has been a surreal experi- ence that has thrown my life off-kilter," Camilleri told Mal- taToday. "I cannot understand how such a dreadful prison sen- tence is possible in a country which decriminalised personal cannabis and is now building a new industry infrastructure for medical cannabis businesses." Camilleri, in fact, is insisting that her sole sapling was still in its infancy and was clearly in- tended for personal use. "The total mass of the plant, that is stem and leaves, were just 6.83 grammes. It had not produced any buds – that is, the actual cannabis that can be consumed – and it was not being cultivated with the use of artificial light or hydropon- ics. This was a sapling inside a 10-litre margarine container… not an industrial cultivation," Camilleri said, sounding dis- traught. "They were just shoots. And you have to consider that they had yet to produce their first flowers, which is when you start seeing whether they are either male, or female. It's the female that produced THC, the psychoactive constituent in cannabis. At that point, the female flowers have to be sepa- rated from the males or it will produce just seeds, and not the bud that can be consumed." Under its recent Drug De- pendency (Treatment) Act, Malta removed a previous mandatory term of imprison- ment of six months for people found cultivating cannabis "in a small quantity not exceed- ing one plant, in circumstances where the Court is satisfied that such cultivation was for personal use." 2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 NOVEMBER 2019 NEWS Harsh cannabis sentence exposes serious gap in Maltese law Malta's reformed drug laws * Police can prosecute on small quantities of drugs – 3.5g of cannabis, 2g of other drugs, two pills of ecstasy – but users will be subjected to fines rang- ing between €65 and €125, or between €50 and €100 in the case of cannabis. * Police can still detain people caught with small quantities of drugs for up to 48 hours, to extract information related to drug trafficking. * Second-time offenders, ex- cept cannabis, are referred to Drug Offenders Rehabilitation Board. Repeat cannabis of- fenders are exempt from ap- pearing in front of the board, irrespective of how many times caught in possession of the drug. * Cultivation of a cannabis plant for personal use is no longer punishable by a man- datory prison sentence or sus- pended sentence, and doctors can prescribe cannabis in me- dicinal form if no other viable alternative exists.