Transport Malta is refusing to renew a coach driver’s official tag that allows him to carry passengers, because of a ‘minor’ drug conviction.

Ryan Borg, 38, was charged with cannabis cultivation and possession in 2011. But once the law changed in 2021, the court did not find him guilty of cultivation, but fined him €500 for possession of cannabis seeds.

Since that conviction in May last year, Borg has been unable to continue working as a driver because of Transport Malta’s refusal to renew his official tag.

When police searched his home in 2011, they found two small cannabis plants, traces of crushed cannabis leaves and a packet of cannabis seeds.

The law was still very harsh back then, and anyone found guilty of cultivating or trafficking cannabis was liable to between four and 30 years in prison and a fine of between €2,329.37 and €116,468.67.

That same year Welshman Daniel Holmes was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison for growing cannabis.

A court-appointed expert examined Borg’s cannabis and told the court that the two plants weighed 0.05 grams in total and the seeds were not germinable. As for the crushed traces, the court said it could not confirm whether they were taken from the two plants, especially because the plants were very small.

The case was decided 11 years later.

Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras noted that following the amended cannabis law in December 2021, Borg could not be found guilty of cultivation because his two plants fall well within the parameters of today’s law, which permits up to four plants. 

She did find him guilty, however, of possessing cannabis seeds – albeit not germinable – and fined him €500. The magistrate argued that according to the amended law, possession of seeds remained illegal.

Borg returned home with a sigh of relief that day, thinking that the struggle was over and feeling vindicated by the newly amended law.

“I was charged with something everyone can legally do now, and I felt like the new law had, in a way, proven my innocence all along,” Borg told Times of Malta.

“I paid the fine in full straight away and thought I could turn over a new leaf. That was until September, when I went to renew my Transport Malta tag. They refused to renew it because I have a drug conviction.”

The Transport Authority issues an official tag to public transport, taxi, minibus and coach drivers, permitting them to chauffer people. It is prohibited for anyone to work as a driver without the official tag.

To this day, Transport Malta refuses to renew Borg’s tag because he falls on its blacklist as a drug convict.

According to subsidiary legislation, Borg will only be eligible to apply for the tag three years after the court decision and after he undergoes a drug rehabilitation programme.

But Borg says he was never a drug addict and insists that what he needs is to work to earn a living, and not a rehabilitation programme.

“I have not been able to work as a driver since, and I am struggling to make ends meet,” he said.

“Last Christmas I had to borrow money from my friend to buy gifts for my children.”

Borg works for a tourist transport company, and his boss has so far managed to give him alternative work, but Borg, who has a licence to drive every form of large passenger vehicle, says it is not enough to keep him going.

“Driving is my profession and I know how to do my job well. I always worked diligently and never had issues with clients,” he said.

“My livelihood depends on this.”

‘Time to change regulations’

Borg’s lawyer, Luciano Busuttil, said that Transport Malta’s regulations should perhaps be amended to better reflect the new law.

Transport Malta is certainly following the regulations rigorously, he said, but it makes no sense for someone with such a small conviction to be prohibited from work 11 years after he rehabilitated himself and changed his life.

“Transport Malta should change the way it interprets or applies its rules. This man was not trafficking drugs and the amount he cultivated was almost negligible,” Busuttil said. 

“He’s not a drug addict, and I don’t see why he shouldn’t be able to work.”

Questions were sent to Transport Malta and the Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis.