A 43-year-old man from St Julian’s has been handed a suspended sentence for trafficking heroin to sustain his own drug dependency. A court heard how the accused had finally progressed in overcoming his addiction, after being raised at a disadvantage since his father would “test” drugs on him as a child before selling them off.

This was potentially the first court sentence under the 2015 Drug Dependence (Treatment) Act, which provides for the treatment of persons in possession of small quantities of prohibited drugs for personal use and for other measures for the rehabilitation of persons suffering from drug dependence.

Malcolm Tanti was caught in the act of selling a packet of heroin to a third party back in 2009. He was arrested on the spot and criminal proceedings were initiated against him.

He was arraigned before a different magistrate back in 2012 and entered into a guilty plea throughout the proceedings. Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras, presiding over the case since 2015, noted how this was not Tanti’s first brush with the law. He has previous convictions for theft, damage to property, falsification of documents, heroin possession and trafficking – resulting in penalties such as fines, suspended sentences and custodial prison sentences.

At the time of his arrest in 2009, Tanti was on probation for a previous conviction.

Galea Sciberras also took into consideration how Tanti had made great progress, even receiving professional help. She remarked that considering the way he was brought up and what he has been exposed to, seeking help and following through took “serious dedication”.

The courts observed that Tanti has been clean since 2013, barring two small incidents in 2016 and 2017.

Galea Sciberras commented that all things considered – the serious drug abuse, the sorry state he found himself in thanks to his father using him to test drugs before selling them off, “shows great effort and genuine dedication...”, while she also acknowledged the “truly satisfactory progress”.

Another factor which the court took into consideration when meting out a sentence was that the man’s crimes had been primarily due to his dependence on narcotics. The courts had heard how Tanti was using three packets of heroin daily around the time he was arrested.

The new Drug Dependence (Treatment not Imprisonment) Act provides for when the court is satisfied that the crimes which the accused is being found guilty of were primarily due to drug dependence, the court must refrain from applying the minimum mandatory prison sentence or excluding probation or suspension of the term of imprisonment.

As a result of this, Tanti was handed a 14-month prison term suspended for three years, together with a €1,200 fine.

Lawyer Kathleen Grima was defence counsel.