Legal cannabis driving limit set in new drug-driving bill

Updated 2.10pm with Releaf reaction

Malta could be set to introduce a legal cannabis limit for drivers as part of a revised drink-driving bill, after MPs backed changes allowing roadside drug testing.

The limit will be set at two micrograms per blood litre, identical to that adopted in the UK. The new threshold was approved during a parliamentary committee meeting on Monday evening, although it will need to be voted through parliament before entering into force.

An initial draft of the bill, tabled in parliament this summer after a spate of traffic accidents involving drink and drugs, adopted a zero-tolerance approach, criminalising anybody caught driving with any trace of cannabis in their blood.

The bill drew criticism from several quarters, including cannabis regulator ARUC, as well as medical associations and the Foundation for Social and Welfare Services, all of whom called for the bill to introduce a minimum threshold for cannabis.

At the time, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, who had presented the initial draft bill, promised that authorities would be taking experts’ feedback on board.

During Monday’s committee meeting, Camilleri pointed to a report drafted by Doctors for Road Safety, which compared limits set across several EU countries, saying the government would be going for a middle ground.

“A person may have consumed cannabis a week ago, even for medicinal purposes, and still have traces in their blood, so we wanted to eliminate that scenario,” Camilleri said. “But we also had to draw a line somewhere,” he added.

“We didn’t look at countries with higher limits, like Germany and the Netherlands, but we went for the model applied in the UK,” Camilleri said.

Camilleri and Police Superintendent Nicholas Vella told the committee that, in addition to medical advice, they had also sought the views of Roadpol, a European roads policing network, over the introduction of a legal limit.

The proposed legal limit will not apply to people driving buses, commercial vehicles, taxis or other vehicles carrying passengers, for whom a zero-tolerance approach will remain.

The amended bill will also include a provision allowing people on a medical prescription for cannabis to present their prescription when caught driving with cannabis in their blood.

The bill will introduce start random roadside testing for drink and drug driving. It also intends to introduce mandatory prison sentences for behind-the-wheel manslaughter if the driver was over the alcohol limit or had drugs in their system.

The bipartisan committee unanimously approved the amended bill.

ReLeaf: Limits are too low to measure impairment

Cannabis lobby group ReLeaf was the first to react to the decision to include a two microgram-limit in the law. 

That limit is too low, the NGO said, "and does not indicate whether the person is impaired or posing a danger on the road or to others."

It said it feared the law was the start of a renewed "witch hunt" against cannabis users, saying "the same people which opposed the cannabis law in 2021 are back in the driving seat and again pushing for stigma and discriminatory laws."  

ReLeaf questioned the government's decision to base the law on limits set in the UK, a country which does not have any cannabis decriminalisation laws and outlaws recreational cannabis.

It also expressed disappointment that the government had moved ahead with the amendments without consultation despite it making "repeated attempts to ask for a meeting."