Sociologists say drug victim reform should not be culled by partisan interests

Maltese sociologists have called for an impact assessment into proposed drug court reforms that will allow defendants accused of trafficking higher than normal quantities of drugs, to be prosecuted under procedures for victims of drugs.

The Malta Sociological Association said it was disappointed that the public consultation process launched last week drug victims reform had been “sensationalized and subjected to partisan interests”.

The reference was to reactions from Opposition party MPs and other social media voices who accused the government of adopting lenient court procedures for traffickers caught with substantial amounts of illegal substances.

“It would be much more fruitful to have a mature, evidence-based deliberative process on this public consultation, involving different stakeholders,” the MSA said.

The MSA said such a policy reform should employ a social impact assessment in an ongoing process.

The International Principles for Social Impact Assessment defines an SIA as the processes of analysing, monitoring and managing the intended and unintended social consequences, both positive and negative, of planned interventions and social changes.

“An SIA is an interdisciplinary process, and should employ various methods, both quantitative and qualitative,” the MSA said,

Social impact assessments should not be one-off exercises: To the contrary, they should be ongoing processes which engage with various stakeholders and which report back so as to ensure effective policy processes.”

Under the proposed rules change, a court hearing a case on drug trafficking - which is determined according to the amounts of drugs a person is charged with - can convert itself into a drugs court. This means the maximum amounts of drugs in a person’s possession that can be considered as being for personal use before the drug court’s jurisdiction will climb to 500 ecstasy pills, up from the current 300; up to 200 grams of heroin or cocaine instead of the current 100, and 500 grams of cannabis rather than 300 grams as the law currently stands.