I’m with Caritas on this
Published:
July 9, 2014 at 7:57pm
They’re the ones who deal with the problems on a daily basis and who actually know what they’re talking about. Owen Bonnici and Joseph Muscat are a couple of sheltered mummy’s boys who led tal-muzew lives far away from any drug scene. They haven’t a clue.
The big drug expert in the government is the Police Minister, but he’s on the wrong side: his clients (sorry, EX clients) are Malta’s biggest and most notorious drug-traffickers, not random users in their teens and 20s, rapped for being caught with a joint.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140708/local/caritas-declares-itself-against-decriminalisation-of-cannabis-as-proposed.526883
And I’m with the Dutch on this. I’ll explain. To reduce the water pressure on their dams, the Dutch let a bit of water through their dams. This prevents large cracks and gives their system a few more years of life despite the little bit of flooding it causes, which is an annoyance at most.
This is their attitude with the drug problem. They let through the weed smokers and other soft drug users to reduce pressure on the police forces so that they can focus on those that do and sell drugs like Heroin, Meth and Cocaine.
In any case the Dutch children are more interested in becoming the next Van Persie or Robben than lighting up a joint. Maybe instead of focusing on drug prohibition (which never worked), Caritas should focus on finding things that are more interesting to the Maltese teenagers than drugs.
In any case, if a Maltese guy is running a medium-sized drug operation in Malta you can guarantee he’s untouchable.
Me too.
U dawn tal-Caritas f’hiex jifmhu? Ma jahsbux, ghal li jista jkun life jifmhu altar min Owen hux? U halluna.
I don’t agree one bit with this ‘first time’ thing. First, we wage an all-out war against drugs because they are so addictive. Then we expect someone to stop using a drug because a magistrate told them so, and penalise a repeat offender because…wonder of wonders…the addict was caught again taking drugs. A drug that is chemically addictive, more addictive than the pizza we are all guilty of eating even though we shouldn’t, and the McDonald’s that everyone who has ever had a bad week is guilty of driving out for in the middle of the night, because we all know that it makes us feel better – even if only temporarily. Even though the doctor told us it will kill us. But then we expect a drug user not to use a chemically addictive drug again after being rejected from another job because of a ruined police conduct because the magistrate told them ‘ara biss ma tiehux joint/line iehor’.
I don’t believe that anyone is a repeat drug offender – they are addicts and not offenders of anything but their own selves. True, society fears them for the crimes they may or may not commit to finance their habit (THAT would be the crime) and feels an obligation to treat them because we are (ahem) Christian (cough cough choke), incurring expenses in the process. And because we probably have families and want our children to see nothing but daisies and happy cows grazing on fresh grass, we swipe addicts out of the picture by putting them in jail and put immigrants in detention centres for longer than they should. And use the police and army to detain/search/intimidate both drug users and immigrants. Ghax hekk il-kartolina ta’ Malta tidher isbah u taparsi m’ghandniex problemi fis-socjeta.
The problem can be partially addressed (never solved) with fines, support, allowing these people to work and contribute to society instead of giving them a criminal record that renders them dependent on crime and benefits for the rest of their lives. Not to mention the despair that this results in, further resulting in more drug use. Because we have all had that pizza when we had a bad week at work, we should understand that a jobless and hopeless man with a criminal record would have it much, much harder than us, and their addiction will surely resurface (addiction cannot be cured, it’s with you for life – and gets worse in tough times).
I was going to write that I don’t care that I’ve never interacted with addicts and Caritas has for all its life, and give reasons why I still don’t think Caritas is right. But in reality, I know about addiction – food addiction – and also that the brain just. does. not. work. the. way. it. should. when there is a serious craving. It is only after the craving has been satisfied that the normal thought process of ‘what have I done’ returns. This is why I would never touch a drug – if food can do this to me, what would a chemically addictive substance do to me? Of course, a teen without any addiction whatsoever has no idea what addiction feels like, and just goes ahead and tries a drug for the first time.
So back to why I think Caritas is wrong – there is no offence against society when one harms oneself, and thus there can be no criminal offence. It is the pushers who are the criminals because THEY are supplying the drugs to the population, which IS an offence against society because it gives individuals problems.
We are hell bent on trying to SOLVE drug use when this is something that can never be solved, but only MANAGED. Through education, warnings, fines, and assistance.
It’s as though we just do not want to cannot accept that yes, there is a problem, and yes, we should have to live with addicts in our society, whether we like it or not. instead, we are after the less gassy version of the Final Solution.
To conclude, I believe that criminal offences – being offences against society – cannot include harming oneself, even if this is done in the knowledge that society will have to pay for one’s actions. The same way that me jumping off a cliff in Comino or attempting suicide in Dingli is not criminal, even though I might make society pay for my cures.
Something should NEVER be made a criminal offence simply to serve as a deterrance and to signal that using drugs is not okay. It is either a crime against society, or it is not. Drug use is clearly not a crime against society but only an act against oneself.
Society’s fears of what crimes I could or could not commit to finance my addiction is society’s problem, not mine. For all you know, I could have enough means to finance my addiction. If, however, I do commit an offence against society by robbing an old lady and leaving her bound to a chair, then THAT is a criminal offence. But nobody should be punished for what that person MAY do IN FUTURE because of your current state of addiction – that is grossly unfair.
To prevent a nation of addicts who decided to give it a go because it is no longer a crinimal offence to do drugs, we must educate the people and prevent drugs from reaching this island.
I would ask you to re-consider your idea that taking drugs only affects the person taking them if that person can afford the habit. If we were to have a system like most european countries where traffic accidents were listed if the driver/s involved were under the influence everyone would have a better picture of how doped people act and react. We would also learn quite a bit if we checked people involved in serious incidents.
One could also talk to an addict’s family and significant others to see the devastation when an addiction takes over. I fully agree that when a person has a relationship with drugs, that relationship takes precedence over everything and everyone else in their lives. And how many can one afford a habit especially if that habit causes them not to get or keep a job.
If you had ever worked with an addicted person you would realize what this means to his/her co-workers and you would shudder to think what it means to anyone receiving a service from the addicted person. Let me assure you that the picture is not at all pretty.
This is not the one off pizza or fries, this is the waking up in the morning and not thinking of anything except the pizza where the pizza takes precedence over one’s clients, one’s partner, one’s child. This is associating with one’s supplier who thinks nothing of trading in death and destruction and who most likely conducts other similarly distructive businesses. Addiction makes one a master manipulator, a user, not just of drugs but of whoever/whatever you need to get one’s next hit.
Believe you me this is not your guilty pizza in the middle of the night.
So now it’s drug decriminalisation. Muscat will be continuing doing this as long as it gives the impression that by introducing this type of laws or amending the ‘old fashioned’ ones, we will be seen as Modern, Progressive and most of all European.