Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1360420
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 APRIL 2021 INTERVIEW pressing the brake… not the gas makes it clear that Caritas is against the criminalization of cannabis possession for per- sonal use. At the same time, however, you're also raising many questions about the lev- el of enforcement of the pro- posed laws… Yes: because that's the third of the concerns I mentioned earli- er. The proposed reform would also reduce the resources avail- able to the authorities, includ- ing the police. One of the limiting factors, proposed by the White Paper, is that cannabis consumption is not permitted in public; and has to be limited to private homes. This raises issues such as, for example, how to control the use of cannabis in front of children. In practice, it is very difficult to enforce these regu- lations; so the authorities will need certain additional re- sources. Moreover, we've also seen successes, when the law en- forcement sector is properly resourced. The forces of order have done a tremendous job, as attested by numerous large hauls of drugs in recent years. The Customs Office are like- wise contributing an invaluable service. But the fact that cannabis is becoming more and more cul- turally accepted – and this is noticeable everywhere: even our clients tell us they smell it, all the time, out in the street – will only undo all that good work. If the legal limit is raised from 3.5g to 7g, and the legal consequences are removed… people will only risk more… Still, however, all past efforts – despite those successes you mention – have so far failed. What are we supposed to do, then? Keep our heads buried in the sand? Let's not forget that the law also sends out a message. One example I like to use is that of mandatory seat-belts. I am about to turn 45; and when I first started driving, there was hardly any enforcement of this law at all. And as a result, hard- ly anyone wore their seat-belt. But when the fines starting to be handed out… that's when people's attitudes started to change. People suddenly start- ed wearing seat-belts, for fear of being fined. The idea of a fine for certain contraventions, then, sends out a message: and in this case, the message is that cannabis itself is not something that should be promoted… but also, that it is not a contravention that de- serves an exaggerated punish- ment, ither. So we all agree that nobody should be sent to prison; we all agree that people shouldn't get a sullied criminal record because of cannabis. But there is still a line that should not be crossed… At the same time, however, the White Paper does spec- ify certain limiting factors: cannabis can only be used in private homes; trafficking remains a crime… so the pro- posed reform does not sim- ply fling open all the doors at once, as you seem to be sug- gesting… Some of those doors, how- ever, will be left ajar. Once the drug has been normalised, there will sooner or later be pressure, from people who use it, to be able to buy cannabis openly from sources other than the black market. So I do feel that we are at a crossroads here. Do we really want, as a society, to go in that direction? To stick to the car analogy: do we want to 'step on the gas'… or do we want to apply the brakes: and try and understand why adolescents and adults turn to cannabis in the first place… and offer them other, healthier means of en- tertainment instead? There is another argument, however: if we have already accepted the legalization of cannabis for medical purpos- es… what's the problem with also accepting recreational cannabis? The two scenarios are very different. Take the example of heroin: people with certain medical conditions are, in fact, prescribed morphine in hos- pitals… which is ultimately a purer version of the same drug. And in cases where people are suffering from unbearable pain: God forbid there wasn't that option. Because morphine is not only a painkiller… it also restores the human dignity of people in those conditions. But if, on the other hand, you take heroin without any med- ical need… the same drug will cause incalculable harm. So Caritas' position on med- ical cannabis has always been clear: if certain extracts from the plant can be used for the purposes of healing… then we fully support it. We even have the Caritas Malta Epilepsy Association: where Prof. Janet Mifsud has conducted exhaustive research into certain severe types of ep- ilepsy – such as Dravet Syn- drome – which registered significant results, using med- ical extracts from cannabis. That is something we support whole-heartedly. But it is important to stress that every law can be abused. We know of cases, for instance, where people with cannabis de- pendencies are given prescrip- tions by doctors: which they then present to the police dur- ing road-blocks. Or who buy the medical products, and re- place the contents with canna- bis bought from the street: so, if they caught, they can pretend it's 'medical cannabis'… Yet it still boils down to wheth- er smoking cannabis should be considered a crime, or not. On this point, Caritas sometimes gives the impression of hav- ing a foot in either camp. You agree that users should not be imprisoned… yet you still argue that cannabis should remain illegal. Isn't this a con- tradiction? The issue here is 'depenali- zation'. As things stand today, the drug is still illegal. As I said earlier, first-time offenders still face the possibility of being fined. But there is also a reality that we cannot afford to ignore. More people are using canna- bis today; and a percentage of those people end up facing se- rious consequences. I still ha- ven't mentioned all those who make considerable efforts to get out of those difficult situa- tions…. and who now, as a re- sult of these changes, will only be more exposed to cannabis, on a daily basis, than before. But to answer your question, our position at Caritas is: let us not 'promote' the use of cannabis. Let us leave certain legal limitations in place. But at the same time… let's not be too heavy-handed about it, ei- ther. The legal amendments of 2015 were brilliant, in this re- gard; and so were the reforms of 2020… which granted the judiciary the discretion not to impose prison sentences, in cases involving the cultivation of more than one plant. As Caritas, we even went to court to testify in certain cases: arguing that this or that person should not go to prison, simply because he had two cannabis plants. Even more so, when canna- bis dependency has already brought those people to their knees. Prison is the last thing those people need. But it doesn't mean we should also stop trying to contain the use of cannabis. For instance: the latest ESPAD [European School Survey Project on Alco- hol and Other Drugs] survey, released by Sedqa, indicates that 12% of Maltese adoles- cents have tried cannabis. Five years ago, the percentage was exactly the same. And there were no change of policies in the meantime. Also, Malta's rate of cannabis use by adolescents is signifi- cantly lower than the European average. So – even if the overall usage is on the increase – these figures show that containment strategies do work. It is, therefore, possible to ob- tain positive results by keeping restrictive measures in place. So what we're saying is: let's keep applying the brakes, for now. Let's not step on the gas…