Caritas director slams poor enforcement of marijuana laws

Caritas director Anthony Gatt did not say “we told you so” when describing Malta’s increasingly worrying drug problem on Thursday.

“The reality we’re seeing is heartbreaking, and it’s largely due to poor enforcement,” Gatt said of the legalization of recreational marijuana in December 2021.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony for drug addicts who had just completed the drug treatment program at the San Blas Treatment Center, Gat explained that according to the law, no one may consume marijuana in public places or near children, and no more than four marijuana plants may be grown at home.

However, Caritas is increasingly fielding calls from worried parents whose neighbours are smoking downstairs, marijuana smoke wafting into their apartments, and teachers who are at a loss as to what to do as students face problems caused by their parents.

“We had warned that the new law would send the wrong message…we would have enforcement problems…at-risk youth would turn to cocaine more quickly…marijuana would be seen as not a big deal…the number of people coming into Mater Dei and Mount Carmel would increase…some people said we were creating a fear mongering,” Gatt recalled.

“We know what happened with cigarettes and we’re seeing the same thing happen with marijuana. Tobacco can cause cancer and marijuana is bad for mental health,” he said.

Since October last year, Caritas, together with the Oasi Foundation and the university, has been urging authorities to ban the sale of synthetic cannabis products HHC in grocery stores, corner stores and stationery shops. However, now people can even buy Gummy MDMA and Gummy speed on the Malta website, Gatt said. A sample has been sent to a laboratory for testing, and the results showed traces of MDMA (ecstasy), ketamine and amphetamine.

Gatt said: “This is a dark moment,” but he believes that with proper enforcement the problem can be solved.

He said he believed marijuana regulators were serious about approving social clubs, but it was concerning that the agency said nothing about the dangers of marijuana when advertising the venues to the public.

‘Really serious’ cocaine problem

Besides, he added, the cocaine situation is “really serious.”

Of the 808 people who sought help from Caritas last year, 56% were addicted to cocaine and crack cocaine, while for the first time the number of people seeking help for marijuana (21%) exceeded the number seeking help for heroin (17%).

“We’ve never seen these numbers before,” Gatt said.

He said many addicts seek shelter at Mount Carmel Hospital. They often want to quit drug addiction but cannot, so they use Mount Carmel Hospital as an emergency shelter. Sometimes they are stuck there for months until someone develops a recovery plan for them.

There is another group of people who are not ready for a recovery program and who are constantly in and out of Mount Carmel, moving from one emergency to another, and looking to Mount Carmel as a homeless shelter. Gatt said there is a void in providing “low-threshold housing” for these people so they don’t end up on the streets, posing a danger to themselves and others.

NGOs cannot afford social workers

The Caritas director had previously pointed out the financial and personnel problems faced by NGOs.

He said he was pleased to see a recent salary increase for social workers at the government’s Social Welfare Foundation to encourage more people to join the profession. But it also created new challenges for non-governmental organizations, which could not afford to pay the same salaries to hire these much-needed professionals.

While NGOs are doing the best they can through fundraising, if the government does not increase aid they risk losing good people, which in turn means they cannot continue to provide the services their communities need, he warned.

Funding is also needed to ensure that the facilities remain in good condition. In the past few years, Caritas has renovated two prison buildings in San Blas and installed air conditioning. Now it needs to renovate the kitchen building in San Blas and fund prison inmate programs and women’s programs, with a total cost of €1.5 million. Only €200,000 has been raised so far.

He said that in 2023 alone, Caritas received 808 people who sought help for drug problems, of whom 257 were admitted to residential treatment programs, and 515 relatives of these drug addicts were also helped.

Caritas also provided counselling and general social work assistance to 686 people. Meetings were held for 3,382 schoolchildren and 451 workers.

Last year, a partnership with the Ministry of Family and the Alfred Mizzi Foundation provided emergency shelter for 402 people. 1,028 vulnerable people received food at Dar Papa Frangisku.

The Caritas director thanked the Family Ministry for funding most of the adult rehabilitation programmes and the Home Office for funding programmes for prison inmates. He also thanked the public and corporate donors for their generosity.