NGOs infuriated by new regulations on cannabis smoke that annoys neighbours
'Violation of privacy and anonymity reduces personal rights'
Legal amendments that make cannabis smokers liable to a €235 fine if a neighbour reports them and claims they can smell the drug, have infuriated two NGOs.
"The new cannabis amendments demonstrate a government that has lost all sense of direction and is now a hostage to the cannabinoid industry," ReLeaf Malta and Moviment Graffitti said in a statement on Sunday.
"The violation of privacy and anonymity reduces personal rights and gives fresh impetus to a culture of stigma against thousands of cannabis consumers and cultivators in Malta and Gozo," they added.
The new, stricter regulations against people who smoke and cultivate cannabis were approved by parliament earlier this month.
When the part-legalisation of cannabis was introduced in 2021, it allowed people to smoke cannabis in their homes and not in public. People caught smoking cannabis in public could be fined €235.
However, the new law expands this fine to also be levied against anyone smoking cannabis “in any place where the odour emission… causes a nuisance to third parties”.
The NGOs said on Sunday they were absolutely opposed to the changes.
“For a person to live in their own home in fear that ‘the neighbours can smell them’ and that the police might come because they are consuming or cultivating cannabis plants are measures that do no good to society and certainly do not promote the responsible use of cannabis.”
The amendments, they argued, abandon the principles of harm reduction and instead turn back the clock by introducing harsh penalties intended to intimidate and frighten.
ReLeaf and Moviment Graffitti noted that representatives of the Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis in March were in Vienna boasting about a government that was moving beyond a vindictive and War on Drugs mentality.
It is therefore "extremely concerning", the organisations said, that at the very same time the government was working on "draconian amendments with measures that expose more than 60,000 consumers to unnecessary administrative and legal risks."
The NGOs called for the repeal of the new regulations "that expose thousands of voters who use or cultivate the cannabis plant to unnecessary administrative and legal risks".