Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1438074
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 DECEMBER 2021 OPINION Raphael Vassallo Did we really 'make history' this week? Not quite… IT'S been reported by so many international news sites, that I'm almost tempted to believe it my- self. But only 'almost', because… well, for one thing: "if it sounds too good to be true, it very prob- ably isn't"… … and for another: if it sounds so 'absolutely fabulous', that even world headlines describe it as 'ground-breaking', 'for- ward-looking', 'a historic first', etc… Oh, I don't know. Maybe I've been hoodwinked by far too many sales-pitches, over the years; or maybe it's just the Grinch who lives inside my head, endlessly trying to steal all my optimism from right under the Christmas Tree... But whatever it is, I still can't help feeling vaguely sceptical. So let me just put the question across right here: did Malta re- ally become – as reported by the BBC this week – 'the first EU nation to legalise cannabis' this week? Reason I ask is… well, there are several. To start with, this would hardly the first time that international news reports about Malta somehow manage to get even their most basic facts… um, WRONG. (Like when the BBC described Simon Busuttil as 'Malta's Opposition leader': a full five months after he had very publicly – and very conspicu- ously – stepped down from that role…) Oh, OK: on this one, we can safely assume that the BBC did at least get the country right; and that the news itself did have something vaguely to do with 'cannabis'. For yes: it is undeniable that Malta's Parliament has just ap- proved a new bill concerning that particular drug (and the use thereof 'for recreational purpos- es'). But… does that reform real- ly add up to a full 'legalisation' of cannabis, as it has just been de- scribed? And if so: is it really the 'first time' such a thing has ever happened, across the length and breadth of Europe? Tell you the truth, I'm not at all convinced… and some of my reasons emerge even from the same new reports themselves. Sticking to the BBC article, for now: "Under the changes, any- one carrying more than seven grams, but less than 28g could be fined up to €100. The punish- ment for smoking in public will be a €235 fine, and those smok- ing cannabis in front of anyone younger than 18 could be fined up to €500…" There is also the small matter that, while the new law permits the cultivation of up to four plants… you could still end up facing criminal charges, if any of those plants happens to be 'vis- ible' (and, presumably, 'smella- ble') by the general public…. Now: I freely admit that none of those details, on its own, out- rightly contradicts the 'legalisa- tion' claim. There are, after all, plenty of other things that we are 'not allowed to do in pub- lic'… but which are entirely 'le- gal', in the privacy of our own homes. (If you don't believe me: try taking a dump on the steps of Castile, and see what happens…) But even accounting for that sort of thing: I, for one, still struggle to discern any real dif- ference – at least in the inten- tion, if not the actual execution – between this latest drug-law reform, which 'legalised' can- nabis… and the one passed by the same Parliament way back in 2015: which was supposed to 'decriminalise' the same drug, in what was (at the time) an equally 'historic' achievement. Now: having said that, I must also stress that the distinction it- self doesn't really matter all that much, from the perspective of those who – like me – have long been arguing for precisely for this kind of approach anyway. To put that another way: if this reform – however we choose to define it – really does succeed in at least a few of its own stated objectives: i.e., that harmless people are no longer automatically crimi- nalised in this country; …or that buyers are protected from the black market by the creation of safe, legal pathways to acquire the drug; …or that Malta's crime-fight- ing infrastructure is no longer permanently 'hijacked', by what is effectively a low-priority is- sue that poses no real threat to public safety or security whatso- ever… … and if, on top of all that, we even end up with a situation like Portugal (more of which in a sec) where 'problem drug-use' actually decreases over time, as a result… Well, under those circum- stances, we can call it 'legalisa- tion', 'decriminalisation', or even 'Rudolph the Red-eyed Dope- Fiend', for all I care. The truly important thing is that we'd be left with a drug strategy that ac- tually WORKS, for a change (a claim which, quite frankly, can- not be made by the failed policy we are currently in the process of dismantling.) Ah, but from the perspective of international world news cov- erage: would it make any differ- ence at all, if what we just did was simply 'decriminalise' – as opposed to 'legalise' – cannabis? Erm… yeah, I reckon it prob- ably would. For one thing, that sort of announcement would not, strictly speaking, qualify as a 'historic first' even just for Mal- ta… let alone for the European Union, or the rest of the world. (We already decriminalised that stuff almost five years ago, re- member?) Besides, there is at least one EU member state – Portugal (See? Told you I'd come back to it!) – which actually decriminal- ised ALL illegal drugs: not just cannabis; but heroin, cocaine,