In his article A need for braver action (TMID, 23 July) Gavin Gulia, main opposition spokesperson for Home Affairs, has missed out on several crucial points.
Last week, Minister Dolores Cristina launched a Draft National Drugs Policy. It says so clearly on the cover of the publication. The operative word here is ‘draft’ as the document was launched for public consultation.
The document is not a ‘report’, as Dr Gulia writes, but a preliminary roadmap which includes 47 doable policy targets, which are up for a nationwide debate. In the last few days, more than 300 copies of the publication have been delivered to a wide range of stakeholders for their feedback, comments, proposals and suggestions. Requests from other interested parties for copies of this draft policy are pouring in and some preliminary feedback has already been received.
This is far from being a fully fledged national policy. This country will have its first National Drugs Policy after all the feedback received has been filtered through and evaluated and a final document formulated. It is essential that feedback is forthcoming from individuals, entities, voluntary organisations and from all those interested in the sector. Without a shred of doubt, the Opposition’s contribution is expected and awaited.
On another point, Dr Gulia says he would have preferred a bi-Ministerial approach by the Family and Interior Ministries. In actual fact this draft policy carries a multi-Ministerial approach and this is evident to anyone who reads the draft policy carefully. In the first place, the National Commission on the Abuse of Drugs and other Dependencies, which is made up of representatives of different Ministerial sectors, together with the Directorate for Policy and Implementation within the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity, was responsible for the initial draft policy which was then dissected and discussed at Cabinet Committee level. Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries from the Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs, Education, Health, Finance, and Family and Social Solidarity, together with Permanent Secretaries and other officials from the same Ministries gave feedback to the original document, as did the Minister for Gozo.
Dr Gulia also writes that the draft policy ‘could have sent a signal that future radical reforms to our justice system, so badly needed, would be pushed forward with little hindrance.’
The chapter on the legal and judicial framework actually spells out that a review of the current legislation is essential and that this policy, in its final formulation, ‘should propose amendments to improve existing legislation and introduce new provisions as and where necessary.’
The Ministry has no doubt that, by 14 September, it will receive a substantial amount of feedback which will all be taken into consideration to give this country its first-time-ever structured and coordinated approach to dealing with the drugs situation.
Marija Schranz
Communications Coordinator
Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity