Activists demand clarity on CBD after Pain Clinic doctor faced with cannabis charges

Cannabis activists are petitioning MPs to address what they say are grey areas in the recently-enacted decriminalisation that allows the legal distribution of cannabis to registered ‘club’ memvers.

Advocacy group Releaf said the arrest of Pain Clinic doctor Andrew Agius, who stands accused of importing cannabis, was in breach of the law and had created unnecessary harm to innocent people.

“Society is now witnessing a new weapon levied against people who consume CBD. MPs have an opportunity to rectify these human rights abuses and ensure better implementation of the core principles included in the law. Further clarifications of the law will ensure that the spirit of a human rights and evidence-based approach to drug policy is enacted both on paper and on the ground.”

The petition was tabled by the founder of cannabis lobby group Releaf, Andrew Bonello.

Agius’s case revolves around the interpretation of a definition included in a December 2021 reform that effectively legalised the restricted use of cannabis for personal use. When Agius was charged in court, prosecutors argued that given that the CBD flower they seized from him forms part of the cannabis plant, it is a narcotic and subject to seizure and prosecution. 

Releaf said the legal status of CBD, or cannabidiol, whose THC content is less than 0.2%, was in question and should fall outside any criminal statutes.

In their petition to MPs, the group said the 2021 amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance established that cannabis ddoes not include seeds or cannabinoid products that do not have more than 0.2% of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

In 2020 the World Health Organisation also said that CBD does not have psychoactive properties and had no potential for abuse or to produce dependence. Hemp, which has a low level of THC, is also a crop grown across Europe.

“In summary, CBD has no potential for abuse, is allowed within the EU, and has been identified in Maltese legislation as being separate from cannabis with a higher THC content of 0.2%,” Releaf sasid.

“Therefore, the focus is on the THC contents, and not the physical appearance of cannabis. Nonetheless, various people are being arrested and accused of importing cannabis prohibited under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, even when THC contents are below 0.2%.

“The prosecutor is completely ignoring amendments enacted in 2021 whereby a definition of cannabis, as pertaining to a regulated substance, is based on the levels of THC (above 0.2% THC) and not on physical appearance or other interpretations.”

Releaf is calling on MPs to discuss with urgency a greay related on the status cannabidiol (CBD) and clarify its legal status for all its forms – flowers, hash, edibles, oils, creams and extracts.