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Matthew Vella
Talks on amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance will have to wait until the President’s forum meets in the last week of September, signalling a lengthier wait for changes in the definitions of drug trafficking and sharing.
Labour MP Gavin Gulia has welcomed the decision by the Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee to commence talks on any proposed amendments, but “deplored” the fact that Minister Tonio Borg “subordinated the work of the parliamentary committee” by transferring discussion on the legal amendments to an ad-hoc committee under the President’s auspices.
The forum, formed on the 25 June, 2002 to commemorate the UN World Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, was created by then President Guido de Marco to discuss amongst other issues, strategies concerning national drug legislation. It groups the Police Corps, Sedqa, the Substance Abuse Therapeutic Unit, the National Commission on the abuse of Drugs, Alcohol and other Dependencies, and Caritas.
Today it has been entrusted once again with the job of proposing a discussion paper for Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg, Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina, and Education Minister Louis Galea.
Back in February 2004, five drug overdose deaths within two months revealed the extent with which the law on drug trafficking was negatively affecting the chances of survival for drug overdose victims.
As social workers assisting drug offenders speaking to MaltaToday confirmed, more users were refusing to accompany friends who fall victim to a drug overdose into hospital for treatment, fearing they would be implicated as drug traffickers for having shared drugs with them prior to their death. The debate on changing the law concerning trafficking intensified following the death of a 20-year-old woman who was dumped out of a car at around two in the morning on 3 February, in front of St Luke’s Hospital.
Tonio Borg has already expressed his personal conviction that it was high time to differentiate between drug sharing and trafficking: “It is unacceptable that someone who is not a drug trafficker is accused of being one simply because he shared drugs with his girlfriend. I am not in favour of decriminalisation since after all this remains a criminal offence. But should there be a mandatory sentence of imprisonment? I believe it should remain at the discretion of the Court, in these relatively small cases,” he told MaltaToday in February.
However, Minister Borg had also clearly stated he was letting the President’s forum tackle the matter after having found little support from the Labour opposition. Stating he would not be fighting “this battle alone”, Borg has now welcomed what he said was a change in Labour’s policy on the differentiation between drug trafficking and sharing, after the Opposition voted against these changes three times between 1998 and 1999:
“Today, the Opposition is in favour of this differentiation. Government is ready to discuss amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance in the Social Affairs Committee after it receives the final reports and comments made by the various groups represented in the President’s Forum.”
The question, however, on when the report will be coming through, and whether this will be pushing for urgent legislative reform, is yet to be answered. Prior to the appointment of Eddie Fenech Adami as president, the forum only resumed meetings in February following a six-month hiatus, and with no deadlines set to provide a report on the matter, progress on the issue remains silent.
In a statement issued earlier this week, Gavin Gulia said he wanted to see future discussions in the Social Affairs Committee to be “serene and free of all disturbances and manipulation”, and one that will not be manipulated to serve as a stamp of approval for the President’s report.
Reacting to statements by the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, Gulia told MaltaToday the Opposition had voted against earlier attempts to amend drug laws on the importation of amounts designated for personal use because no specific criteria had been established for the definition of amounts indicating personal use:
“Back then we were not only talking about sharing but also on importation, which is a more serious matter, since drugs in Malta are not produced but mainly imported. The Ministry’s comment was a political one that appeals to ignorance. We want to see discussion in the parliamentary committee so we can have a holistic approach to the subject. We also want to strengthen drug laws against drug barons and major importers, and to see that these people do not benefit from a differentiation between sharing and trafficking.”
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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