A man facing extradition to the US abused drugs to self-medicate from “extreme” social anxiety, a court heard on Thursday. 

Proceedings continued against Daniel Joe Meli, who is wanted by US authorities for allegedly dealing in illegalities over the dark web. 

The court presided over by Magistrate Leonard Caruana, heard from psychiatrist Peter Muscat, who saw Meli between March and June 2023. 

The then 27-year-old had been referred to him after suffering a seizure due to his abusing prescription medication.

He said that Meli had been taking too-large doses of clonazepam - which had been prescribed to him to treat his “extreme” social anxiety disorder.

He had finished the medicine prescribed to him well ahead of time and was not given any more to wean him off the drug. 

During their first session, Muscat said that Meli was clearly anxious, disturbed and very worried about things and that he prescribed him a different medication to treat his anxiety.

However, when he next saw Meli he told him that he had stopped taking the medication because it had some minor adverse side effects that he did not like.

During that session, Meli also said he preferred not to meet people and avoided all social interaction, admitting that he had started methadone and was feeling a little bit better.

Muscat recommended other alternative medicines to Meli that could treat his anxiety and after he had researched them, the accused seemed interested in, but ultimately, this went nowhere.

The last time he saw him, Muscat said things had gotten worse for Meli. He had clashed with his mother and said he felt he needed to up his methadone dose.

During this session, they talked about how the accused had felt very severe anxiety since he was at least 15 years old, with the condition having been with him for over a decade at that point.

“He told me that he never had friends, he was always cut off from others and found it difficult to work. He said he abused drugs to help himself with the situation he was going through,” Muscat said.

Adding that he had believed what Meli told him to be true, Muscat said it was clear from his interactions with Meli and his parents that anxiety was deeply impacting his life.

“I have no doubt he suffered from social anxiety from a young age and took drugs to self-medicate. He took as much as he could to try and reduce his symptoms.”

Muscat had given Meli another appointment for the following month, but the accused did not end up keeping it.

The prosecution asked whether the conditions Meli had impacted his ability to have full clarity about his actions, Muscat replied that it did not.

Meli had originally agreed to be extradited to the US but later retracted his consent.

His lawyers argued that the magistrates’ court had not verified whether he was medically fit and capable of understanding his decision.

An appeal against Meli's extradition was dismissed but the law was later changed, allowing a wanted person “adequate time” to decide on extradition requests.

The case then went back before the courts.

Superintendent Mario Cushieri and Inspector Robinson Mifsud are leading the prosecution.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Arthur Azzopardi are representing Meli.