The former director general of the Malta Employers Association has raised the alarm over the country’s “drugs problem” which he says is growing and is “there for all to see”.
“We’re getting many MEA members calling us about drug-related issues, on employees who could be under the influence [while at the place of work] and who have dependency issues,” Joe Farrugia, now a consultant to the MEA told Times of Malta.
Asked to quantify the nature of the problem, Farrugia said it was not in the MEA’s remit to commission studies on drug use in Malta but it was duty- bound to speak up on trends that are perceptibly on the rise.
“The number of queries from employers on how to tackle certain situations concerning the use of cannabis have certainly increased. Some want to know whether they can random test employees whose performance at work they suspect is affected by the use of cannabis outside office hours.”
Apart from affecting productivity, employers believe that the consumption of cannabis raises safety concerns at the workplace. “Just imagine what damage can be done by crane operators, cab or school-bus drivers who turn up to work under the influence. The same applies for stockbrokers and white-collar workers,” Farrugia said.
Back in 2021, Farrugia and the MEA had criticised the government’s proposed cannabis reform, quoting statistics which show that individuals who test positive for marijuana have 55% more industrial accidents, 85% more injuries and 75% more absenteeism.
Farrugia insists that “legalising marijuana has led, or is leading, to the normalisation of cocaine”.
Challenged to prove this, Farrugia quoted Caritas Malta who recently pronounced itself strongly on the matter.
“And I think they are correct,” Farrugia said.
Caritas director Anthony Gatt recently called the lack of enforcement of the cannabis law “a crying shame” and described the situation regarding cocaine as “truly serious”.
Farrugia also recalled the sense of “frustration” he and other social partners felt at MCESD meetings when the legalisation of recreational cannabis was discussed.
“There was consensus among the social partners at MCESD level, that simple possession and consumption of cannabis should not be allowed to blemish criminal records of individual users. However, we had advised government to tweak the law so as not to create further social problems. But we know what the results are. They are there for everyone to see today.”
In December 2021 Malta became the first EU state to legalise the cultivation of cannabis for recreational use. Since then it has become legal for adults aged 18 and over to carry 7g of annabis for personal consumption and for households to grow up to four marijuana plants and store up to 50g of dried cannabis.
Back then Farrugia had suggested the introduction of random drug tests for cannabis, a suggestion that had drawn the ire of the General Workers’ Union.