I think we have to ask some much more specific questions about who’s been bankrolling the Labour Party
Decriminalising the possession for personal use of illegal drugs doesn’t merely help first-time offenders (or is it going to be repeat offenders too?) by allowing them to have a clean criminal record which might otherwise have been sullied by stupidity and recklessness.
It also eases up the market for those who sell the drugs. It’s a whole lot more difficult selling illegal drugs in a market where possession for personal use is a criminal act than it is in a market where possession for personal use is not. Obviously.
We tend to talk and think and behave as though illegal drugs somehow metamorphose in Malta, appearing out of thin air to be sold by shady types in dark raincoats in hovels and alleys.
But the market in illegal drugs is financed by those who move among us, even though we cannot identify them, and the pressure to use the law to widen the consumer base for those drugs might be coming from the most unexpected quarters.
It cannot be more obvious that decriminalising possession for personal use makes possession for personal use MORE attractive. This means that people, younger people especially, will have even fewer qualms about buying and using. And parents will no longer be able to use the police, the law and prison to put the fear of God into recalcitrant teenagers on whom health-related arguments don’t work because all teenagers think they are physically invincible and will live forever.
For much the same reason that parents find it difficult to win the war against a culture that seeks (successfully) to get their children hooked on cigarettes, they will find themselves increasingly weakened in the battle against the already-pervasive marijuana. And that’s saying something, because this generation of parents, unlike the one before, can’t be accused by their children of not knowing what they’re talking about.
Here’s Ivan Fenech, in Times of Malta today:
…our Prime Minister, clearly riding on a high which is out of sync with the rest of the country, has brought up the next item on his liberal agenda: drugs.
To start with, going easy on first-time offenders is not a liberal policy but a logical, sensitive policy. We all do stupid things in our youth, my list is endless, and one mistake shouldn’t serve to ruin the rest of a kid’s life. But packaging it in a liberal agenda raises alarm bells.
The Prime Minister spoke of the decriminalisation of minor drug-related offences. Imprisoning youths found in possession of drugs for personal use “was failing our youths”. But what is personal use?
Local media has recalled how the issue of drugs for personal use was raised in a court judgment that confirmed a 10-year prison sentence to Welshman Daniel Holmes, found guilty of growing cannabis in Gozo. In rejecting his appeal, the court said over one kilo of marijuana was found in his apartment, enough to make 5,300 joints. So the question arises, what does the Prime Minister mean by personal use?
We’ve been down this road before. The Prime Minister once spoke of gay unions, to which the PN agreed, and then moved on to instead legislate gay marriage with adoption, to which the PN could not agree. He may be playing the same game all over again. The proposal on decriminalising minor drug-related offences comes on the eve of the crucial EP elections.
There is no way the Prime Minister is planning a consensus on this with the Opposition. His plan is to put them ‘on the wrong side of history’, again, this time by accusing them of wanting to send kids to jail on minor drug offences and hence ruining their lives.
To do that, he shall need to go a step further than the PN would be prepared to go: and that is the de facto legalisation of drugs. If he does that, this country is truly in danger because that would be irresponsibility of the highest degree, for purely partisan ends. Muscat’s insistence on branding this a liberal policy points in that direction.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140422/opinion/PM-waving-or-drowning-.515926
It also happens that first time offenders caught smoking or carrying a joint are not sent to prison. Unless he wants every teenager to know they won’t.
Alternattiva already questioned the logic behind this latest soundbite, which is saying something.
One doesn’t look for the logic with Muscat, just the motive. And if he intends to take it down to his permanent campaign level this will be the most vile yet.
Bla klassi u bla morali.
Maybe that explains why Manwel Mallia is untouchable.
You nailed it.
Does anyone recall the “blokka bajda” which was found in the Safi Labour Party club?
The son of a former police official was seen dividing the white block in equal portions in the club’s kitchen during a party.
When someone from the club saw all this we were told that he threw away everything away in the dustbin. Was Dr Toni Abela interrogated about this incident, or was the drug dealer considered a “first time offender” by our police?
Labour supporters accepted that as something normal. Would anyone think that the same people will raise an eyebrow if decriminalisation of drugs becomes a law?
If I were the Nationalist Party I would not fall in the pitfall which you fell in.
Before commenting in favour or against a law, we have to first have the draft of the law, which we don’t have.
Muscat is testing the waters (kite flying) and adjusting his legislation according to public opinion/feedback. If it were a PN prime minister there would have been a White Paper.
So now the Opposition should keep its mouth shut. When the bill of the law or White Paper is published, then it would be the time to speak. In the meantime the Opposition should do its research and discuss the whole matter behind closed doors.
[Daphne – How very democratic. Of course discussion is essential. It’s part and parcel of the democratic process. Malta’s perennial problem is the absence of public discussion about serious matters and the desperate, really desperate ignorance of so many people.]
People who are caught using drugs are not normally first-time offenders; one has to be really unlucky if one was caught by the police and dragged to court after smoking his or her first joint.
I believe that “first-time offenders” caught with small amounts of cannabis are never thrown in prison by our courts, as Joseph Muscat is claiming.
[Daphne – In fact, they are not and have never been.]
I want discussion (what are we doing here?). I don’t want anyone to state that he’s in favour of an unwritten White Paper or bill.
First the PM has to beef up a White Paper and show us his real intentions, then we discuss.
Joseph Muscat is always kite-flying and testing the waters, then if one says that he’s got an objection to the law, he will tweak that part while stating that one is again on the wrong side of history.
I would have accepted gay civil unions, but we ended up with gay marriage plus a right to adopt.
Can’t trust the slimy guy. Can you?
Manuel “dances with prisoners” Mallia might have an answer or two.
I can’t help but remember the ‘blokka silġ’ Toni Abela wanted to get rid of and hide on the eve of the last election. Could it be that Labour (now indistinguishable from government) not only allows drugs on its premises, but also directly profits from them?
Helena Dalli, Minister of Civil Liberties, has considered it necessary to publicly state that legalization of abortion is not on the agenda.
Muscat has also stated that he is firmly against abortion, same as his categorical statement, recorded on video some time back, that he did not accept adoption of children by gay couples.
One can thus safely conclude that legalization of abortion in Malta is firmly on the agenda, and very probably next in line to the legalization of drugs.
The PL obviously considers the child as nothing more than a disposable commodity. So much for PL moral principles.
Lets hope he shows sum balls on thus and takes it all the way and legalises all drugs. Unfortunately i highly doubt it.
Enter Muscat and in one fell swoop destroys all the efforts parents are investing to educate their children away from drugs.
Enter the “let’s defend Muscat brigade” who are extolling the idea and how progressive Malta is becoming. Their arguments range from “if Portugal has decriminalised drugs, so can we” to “children will take drugs anyway so protect them by not making first time offenders criminals” to “the war on drugs has been lost.”
As you say “It cannot be more obvious that decriminalising possession for personal use makes possession for personal use MORE attractive.”
Manuel “500,000” Mallia might possibly provide some further insight on the matter, if only by ringing round his clients.
And people thought that after Lorry Sant things couldn’t get worse.
And in 4 years’ time, our Nero will play his proverbial fiddle while he watches our country and our young people implode on a diet of pseudo-liberal/communist values.
It will take generations, if at all possible, to mitigate the deadly all-pervasive fall-out of these policies.
The way Muscat treated the case of the “blokka silg” is disquieting. That case, taken into the context of the present scenario and the ‘promise’ of decriminalisation of certain drugs, sheds serious doubts on Muscat’s intentions.
I wonder whether the Labour Party is being financed by the lobby of the Barunijiet tad-droga. The PM’s decision on the drug issue came too close to the gay adoption law and somehow gives the impression that he wants to pay back another lobby for their votes with another iced-bun. Gabby got hers; now the Barons are expecting to be served too.
Gahan, do not wait for the PN and Simon Busuttil to do this and do that.
It is very good for Muscat to have Busuttil or the PN as the only enemy/opposition.
For Muscat this would be simply an easy one-battle one-war situation. If this country is in a mess we are also responsible for that outcome.
We should all convey and show our disapproval in the way this country is being led by this incompetent and malicious government through sound arguments to our family members, friends and colleagues.
The rest – voting, protesting, etc – will come naturally in due course.
This is just paving the way to legalising soft drugs just to look ‘cool’.
But yes, that’s what I thought too when I read about this decriminalisation of possession of drugs for personal use. It’s going to make things smoother for drug dealers and much easier for young people to start taking drugs.
Just legalize cannabis then, young or old people can get all the pot they need right now with no questions asked.
Controlling and taxing cannabis will take it out the the hands of criminal gangs.
Follow the lead of Uruguay or Colorado or Washington State.
Going to court over a joint in your pocket is not exactly fair when a few beers at the corner bar are more debilitating and dangerous.
If it was not for cannabis, I would have spent the entire day yesterday in bed with my arthritis pain, as the prescribed pain killer that I took in the early morning did not work.
Out of desperation, four puffs on a joint at noon provided me with great pain relief that I was able to function normally and pain free, enough to go in the kitchen and make and bake (and cleanup after) a ricotta pie.
Sure, let’s decriminalise drugs.
As long as we find the importers and dealers and make them pay every last cent in VAT and income tax. Even a schoolboy like me knows who they are, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for the government to send those tax return forms to the correct address.
Decriminalisation? If it was up to me all drugs would be legal, taxed and regularized as they were before the war on drugs started.
[Daphne – In fact, they were not.]
There is no point keeping them illegal other than to widen the pockets of drug lords, because those who want to do it, do it regardless of it being a crime.
The only people I know who never tried drugs are either boring or religious/youth-fellowship types.
[Daphne – I don’t agree. The most boring people of my generation are the drug-users or former drug-users. They still think and speak, and sometimes behave, as though they were mentally, spiritually and psychologically arrested at the time they started used illegal drugs. I can’t explain to you how tedious it is to find yourself talking to a 50+ person who still imagines he’s in the car park at Fortizza circa 1979.]
As evidence accumulates that protecting young persons from the health hazards associated with cigarette-smoking and excessive alcohol consumption requires legislation since education is not enough, Malta seeks to reduce legislative barriers to taking up the use of drugs.
This government seems hell bent on destroying our society.
Don’t make a fuss about marijuana…..it’s relatively harmless compared to alcohol.
You are just attacking this move because it was proposed by Labour.
[Daphne – No, I am criticising this move because marijuana is dangerous, addictive, has ruined the lives and/or personalities of many of my generation and also many of those a generation younger. It is the gateway to more dangerous substances (in my day it was heroin, and several of my contemporaries either died of heroin overdoses or went through long years of heroin addiction followed by arduous rehabilitation programmes overseas, which often failed). In young men who are genetically predisposed (and you have no way of knowing that beforehand) it triggers major psychotic episodes leading to sometimes permanent damage and even schizophrenia. I know of at least three such cases in my own immediate sphere of acquaintance. The terrible mistake the world made with cigarettes should not be repeated with marijuana, which is even more dangerous.]