The use of cocaine is widespread in Malta, including at religious festivities such as weddings and baptisms, according to a European report monitoring changing trends among drug users.
The New Drug Trends report from Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN) found cocaine use had increased in recent years, with focus groups in Malta reporting widespread use of the drug.
“Cocaine is prevalent in all places, including religious festivities (weddings, baptisms, village feasts),” the report read.
Commenting on the drug’s prevalence generally, the report noted it seemed to have “increased in recent years in line with the European Drug Report 2023 and many other sources,” adding it was now “widely available” across Europe.
The results of the study, co-funded by the European Union, includes responses gathered from focus groups interviewed last year, and were first shared publicly last night at an event organised by Harm Reduction Malta, a contributing member of C-EHRN.
The report noted the use of crack cocaine – a more powerful and addictive derivative of powdered cocaine – had also increased in Malta but was mainly limited to the most at-risk users.
However, cocaine was not the only substance to register increased abuse in the country, with focus groups in Malta also reporting higher use of ketamine and synthetic opioids – the latter it said were mainly used unintentionally, however.
Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic known mainly for its use as a horse tranquiliser. Synthetic opioids are man-made drugs that mimic natural opioids such as opium or heroin but can be significantly more potent and, as such, more dangerous.
Speaking to Times of Malta, the report’s author, Daan van der Gouwe, mental health researcher for Netherlands-based Trimbos Institute, highlighted the need for drug testing in Malta.
“People on this island have no idea what they’re taking, including for cocaine,” he said.
“This is specific to Malta and something I believe needs to change,” said van der Gouwe, adding people were currently dying of “preventable deaths”.
Maltese focus groups – which comprised both drug users and mental health and rehabilitation workers – reported increased availability of all drugs, with the rise attributed to social media platforms such as Telegram.
In June, an illegal cannabis and psychedelic mushroom operation using Telegram and food delivery couriers to distribute its products announced it was shutting down after its activities were exposed by a Times of Malta investigation.
The same focus groups also raised concerns over the quality of drugs on the market, which they said remained self-reported and called for “much-needed” drug-checking services in Malta.
Drug-checking services allow users to test the purity of drugs and are employed at some music festivals abroad.
In 2021, a UK Parliament report found that since 2016 there had been no deaths reported at UK festivals offering drug-testing services, while a “10% to 25% reduction in drug-related harm” was also reported.
Malta was one of 18 European ‘focal points’ surveyed for the study, which in other countries focused on different cities.
Last year, Malta was rocked by the murder of Turkish interior designer Pelin Kaya, who was killed when Jeremie Camilleri ran her over her in Gżira and then threw stones at her body. Camilleri, who has since admitted the murder, was drunk and high on cocaine at the time.
Meanwhile, in May two Pakistani nationals were killed on their way to work when the car driven by Karl Vella Petroni smashed into their motorbike in Mosta. Vella Petroni tested positive for cocaine following the crash, with witnesses reporting he had been speeding on the wrong side of the road shortly before killing the two men.