Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/946236
maltatoday SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2018 Interview 15 Malta is poised to become a centre for the production of medical marijuana – while also relaxing its cannabis legislation further – after decades of a no-compromise, 'zero tolerance' policy towards all drugs. JULIA FARRUGIA-PORTELLI, the parliamentary secretary entrusted with the reform, argues that the whole point is to eliminate trafficking, and maximise the user's safety ing such detailed meetings. We could have got everybody under the same roof for a one-day meet- ing; but our intention was to allow everyone the space to ask ques- tions, like you are doing. Regard- ing feedback, what I can say is that nobody left those meetings completely dissatisfied with the approach we are taking. But it's an ongoing process: we need to continue the discussion. I am con- vinced that, if we work hand in hand with all the stakeholders, we will finally have a situation better than the one we have today. Not everyone seems to share that confidence. Opposition leader Adrian Delia has just accused your government of trying to fill the country with 'Drug Factories'... presumably a reference to the drive to attract medical marijuana producers to set up facilities locally. How do you respond to that line of criticism? We have grown accustomed to this sort of situation. Just yes- terday in parliament, I had to make a point of order when an Opposition MP claimed that we 'never discussed medical mari- juana with Caritas'. That is sim- ply untrue. We held meetings [with Caritas] here in this very room. I feel the House was mis- led by that lie. But we are used to hearing similar statements: be it in former electoral campaigns... that we were 'heading into a brick wall', that a lot of catas- trophes were going to occur... in reality, I think that the patients who hear that sort of comment – especially those patients who need medical marijuana every day – are the ones who are best positioned to judge. The truth is that we have an electoral man- date to undertake this reform. In the last legislature, we already gave those patients a mecha- nism that is closer to their needs. Now, we're going a step further. Even the family doctor will be able to write out a prescription for medical marijuana. Another thing is that this is not medicine that will be taken by everybody. It is for people whose first expe- rience of the day, when waking up in the morning, is pain... be- cause of their medical condition, or because of the treatment they are taking for it. So I think that we should be careful not to play with people's emotions. Not to show disrespect towards society. This is something that should unite, not divide us. After all, the Opposition voted in favour of the existing law connected with marijuana for medical pur- poses... But if I understood the argument correctly, the problem is not the sale of medical marijuana, but the production. The 'drug factory' claim may sound awful on paper... but isn't it nonetheless true that we will soon have factories producing drugs which, until just yesterday, were considered 'harmful' and 'dangerous'? Then I think the Opposition must be living on another planet, to make that sort of argument. The reality is that, for decades, we have had (and still have, thank God) pharmaceutical fac- tories that produce much 'worse' – using the same reasoning – drugs than cannabis. We heard my colleague Deo Debattista, a medical doctor, explain in par- liament that if you overdose on Paracetemol – I won't mention the brand – you can die. Using that yardstick, the same danger does not exist for cannabis. So I think this is a case of trying to frighten with the Bogeyman [Ba- baw]. We are not talking about producing marijuana openly in fields, as happens in other places like California. It will be pro- duced at licensed facilities work- ing under strictly regulated and supervised conditions... as is true for other industries, by the way. Facilities that mint money: De La Rue, Crane Currency... where you have traceability, from the point of origin to the point of sale, of (in this case) a medical product. And I may I stress again that we are only talking about cannabis production for medi- cal purposes. I think that the fact that Malta recognised the need to respond so immediately to the investment opportunities... that a considerable number of companies have expressed inter- est in investing, after seeing the reforms we are proposing... is something to be proud of. 'harm-reduction', not 'recreational cannabis' PHOTO JAMES BIANCHI