Minister says people caught smoking a joint should assist police in drug investigations

Justice minister Owen Bonnici is analyzing the impact of reforms to Malta’s drug laws that came into force two years ago, but played down any calls for police to stop arresting people caught with a joint.

“Police need information to break drug trafficking rings, and one way they can obtain such information is by asking people from whom they had bought the drugs," he said when asked by MaltaToday whether police human resources could be better spent than on arresting people caught smoking joints.  

“Nobody is saying that the police shouldn’t investigate drug cases, are they? It’s in society’s best interest for organised crime to be broken up.”

Since the latest drug laws passed in April 2015, police are no longer allowed to prosecute people caught with small quantities of drugs (defined as a maximum of 3.5g of cannabis, 2g of other drugs, or two ecstasy pills). Instead, these people are sent to a board spearheaded by Justice Commissioner and social worker Vicky Scicluna to try and kick the habit.

However, police have maintained the power to detain people caught with small quantities of drugs for up to 48 hours, so as to extract information related to drug trafficking. Recent data shows that, throughout 2016, police seized 73 joints, as well as over 108kg of cannabis resin, 12kg of cannabis grass, eight cannabis seeds, and 88 cannabis plants. 

Read more: Malta's drug laws - what has changed? 

Bonnici said that he will provide a detailed analysis of the impact of the drug law reforms in the coming days, but that preliminary results indicate that Scicluna’s board for simple possession cases has been a success.

However, he is still analyzing the impact of the Drug Offenders Rehabilitation Board, chaired by retired judge Giovanni Bonello.
A person caught with small quantities of drugs (except cannabis) for the second time in two years is referred to the Rehabilitation Board, instead of to the Justice Commissioner.

Also, if a magistrate has reason to believe that a person charged with aggravated drug possession has reformed throughout the duration of the case, he is now able to refer him to the Rehabilitation Board.

Pending civil court cases at record low

Bonnici was addressing a press conference held to announce the results of the European Commission’s recent country report for Malta’s civil justice system.

Notably, the number of pending civil cases plummeted from 10,845 in 2010 to 9,445 in 2015 to a record low of 7,812 as of January this year.

Also, the clearance rate for administrative cases shot up from 28.6% in 2010 to 410.7% in 2015, while the average disposition time of all civil cases decreased from 866 days to 447 days over the same time period.

“This country report is a certificate of this government’s efforts to reduce court delays and improve the quality of the justice sector,” Bonnici said. “Many people used to believe that justice reform was a lost battle, but we are now proving them wrong.”

He added that while there are still some “illegitimate” court delays, the government “has the energy and stamina to address those too.”