Criminologist on ecstasy conviction: law needs changing to reflect a new reality

Prison sentences handed down to people accused of possession or trafficking of drugs, have to fit the crime, criminologist and senior lecturer Dr Sandra Scicluna believes.

This week, the 25-year-old son of European Commissioner Helena Dalli was handed a three-month jail term after he was apprehended outside a Paola party with two others in the process of acquiring six ecstasy pills, eight years ago. He was then aged 18.

The conviction has prompted calls for a reform in our justice system when it comes to approaching the issue of drugs.

Former Nationalist MP and former law commissioner Franco Debono has suggested that a lacuna in the Drug Dependency Act, designed not to inflict punitive jail terms on cannabis users, was having serious effects on similar misdemeanours where clubbers are found carrying ecstasy pills.

He pointed out that Article 13 of the Drug Dependency Act was precluding cases in which people are caught buying drugs outside places of entertainment, to be referred to the drug dependency court.

“It is arguable that you can smoke a cannabis joint at home, without ever being within 100m of any such place where young people congregate. But if you take an ecstasy pill you are likely taking it inside a club. So that alone already punishes ecstasy users from being unable to be referred to the drug dependency court. And that ties magistrates in ordinary courts to lay down a mandatory jail term,” Debono said.

Criminologist Sandra Scicluna

The criminologist agreed with Debono that the magistrate’s hands are tied, insisting that the law needs changing.

“The law is clear. If something has to change it is legislation itself. The magistrate had no other choice but to hand down the minimum sentence,” Scicluna said.

Scicluna said she believes the punishment does not fit the crime, while insisting the time elapsed between the incident and the sentence was too long. “It does not make sense to have people waiting this long, especially knowing the fact that the older someone gets, the more likely he or she will settle down,” she said.

She said the accused should have been handed community service rather than jail-time. “Prison is definitely not the right punishment in my opinion.”

Asked on patterns of ecstasy consumption, Sandra Scicluna said it is difficult to determine whether six pills would be used for personal consumption or for trafficking. “Legislation should be able to determine the difference between the two. A big-time trafficker should get a proper prison sentence. But a first offender should get a more appropriate sentence,” she said.

Ecstasy is a weekend drug, according to Scicluna, which is used in parties “which seem to go on forever.” While having a low physical addiction, unlike cocaine for example, users can develop a psychological addiction, meaning they would never be able to enjoy parties or night-life without its consumption.

Chemist Godwin Mifsud, who tests drugs seized by authorities, said the consumption of ecstasy throughout the years has remained relatively steady. But authorities have noticed a new form of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). While patterns seemed to indicate that local users preferred to consume the pill version of the drug, it is now being sold in powder form or ‘Molly’.

Mifsud said that in its powder form, there is a higher chance of other synthetic substances making their way into the drug, with sellers looking to maximise profit.

A number of MPs have also spoken out about lengthy court waiting times, with parliamentary secretary for equality Rosianne Cutajar criticising the time it took to sentence Jean-Marc Dalli after having been first charged in 2013. “When a young man is left in legal limbo for eight years on an act he committed when he was still a young man, it becomes clear that we have a problem with our courts,” she said.

Cutajar is also legislating on further reforms on the decriminalisation of cannabis.

Nationalist MEP and European Parliament vice-president Roberta Metsola also said on Facebook that while society must push back against criminality, “but cannot allow cases to drag on for years or decades.”

“I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Justice delayed is justice denied. An 18-year-old boy waiting for eight years for judgment before being sentenced to three months in prison is simply too long to have to wait,” the MEP said.