Maltese and Spanish drug laws were placed in sharp contrast this afternoon as two women were handed suspended sentences for charges relating to cannabis possession and cultivation.

Spanish nationals Olga Moran Matia, 27, and Miriam Ruiz Itturbe, 31, were arraigned under arrest before magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech accused of cultivating a cannabis plant, importing cannabis resin and possession of cannabis.

Inspector Frank Anthony Tabone told the court that the accused women had been in Malta for a year and were heavy cannabis users. They had been found with 19 grams of resin and one plant at home. “In Spain,” he explained, “they can keep up to 20 grams and cultivate up to two plants at home.”
But Maltese law relating to cannabis is far more rigid, although there is mounting pressure for relaxing the current prohibition on recreational cannabis.

The prosecution specified that they were not insisting on a custodial sentence. The plants, resin and paraphernalia were presented to the court for destruction.

Lawyer Dustin Camilleri, appeared for the two accused, entered a guilty plea.

The court handed the women a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years. The destruction of the exhibits was ordered.