Cocaine use seems to be surging in Malta. At parties, weddings and village feasts, it is increasingly the drug of choice, consumed openly and without shame.
A recent report by Times of Malta around Valletta revealed cocaine use unfolding brazenly in bars and restaurants. Toilet cubicles were clogged with groups lining up for a hit.
“People do not even wait to go to the bathroom anymore. They do it in front of everyone,” one barman told us.
Once a serious taboo – like heroin – or a luxury reserved for the elite, cocaine is now fast becoming a middle-class favourite, competing with alcohol as a social lubricant.
A dealer put it this way: “Everyone wants it because they feel they need it to socialise.”
Malta is not the exception here. Cocaine use is growing globally, with the UN reporting a 20 per cent increase between 2021 and 2022.
Malta is also clearly on the illicit trade route, given the massive hauls registered at the Malta Freeport – a total of 1,258 kilograms last year alone. Illegal shipments are often intercepted heading from South America to other parts of Europe, via Malta. How much of it is not intercepted? And how much of it finds its way onto the island?
People’s increasing affluence has also had an impact on cocaine use, placing the drug within people’s budgets.
When Malta relaxed its laws on cannabis to allow recreational use, it also relaxed the penalties for drug possession in general. Today, possession of under two grams of cocaine results in a maximum fine of up to €125. That’s less than a fine for smoking tobacco indoors or answering your phone while driving. That’s a small price to pay if your drug of choice already costs up to €100 per gram.
And the behaviour seen in Valletta bars gives the impression that fines are barely being handed out. The net result of all of this seems to be an environment that makes it easier for cocaine use to spread. And, so, it begs the question: Should we do anything to stop it? And why?
Cocaine is classified as a dangerous drug all over the world. It is highly addictive and cocaine-related hospital emergencies – including deaths – are reportedly on the rise.
But when it comes to cocaine, the worry is not only about the immediate health impacts of the drug itself but how the drug impacts one’s behaviour.
Cocaine fills people with unnatural levels of confidence and reduces inhibitions. What happens when people need those inhibitions to prevent them from doing something with serious consequences?
The drug has been associated with serious crime, including the horrific murder of Pelin Kaya, a young woman run over by an intoxicated Jeremie Camilleri, who, in a fit of rage, also threw stones at her lifeless body.
Karl Vella Petroni, charged with killing two Pakistani nationals when he rammed his motorbike into them while speeding on the wrong side of the road, tested positive for cocaine.
How many other cases of violence and crime are being fuelled by cocaine?
Our report was not intended to scaremonger or single out Valletta as a hotspot of cocaine (despite Jason Micallef’s flippant accusation). It was to highlight the increasing ubiquity of cocaine in Malta and prompt a discussion how to tackle it.
What is driving so many people to cocaine? Is cocaine use a symptom of an overworked, hyper-socialised public? How much should we be policing the drug? Should we just accept its recreational use like cannabis? Will a crackdown help or drive users underground and make it harder for them to seek help?
We need an honest debate, not silence.