PN MP Karol Aquilina blasted Justice Minister Jonathan Attard in Parliament, accusing him of adding a clause in the drug reform ‘in secret,’ which allowed the Minister to grant himself powers to change the quantities of drugs one can carry at any given time, and can do so with a legal notice.

Parliament on Tuesday discussed the draft bill which reforms Malta’s drug court laws, with Attard presenting the bill in Parliament after holding a media briefing to journalists, explaining the bill. He said that the new bill makes no changes to the amount of drugs one can carry.

The Nationalist Party said it would not be voting in favour of the bill before its discussion began.

Aquilina said that Attard, while preaching that the quantities of the drugs one can carry, also ‘secretly’ added a small clause in the law which says that the Minister has the right to change this part of the law and can do so by himself through a legal notice.

He said that therefore, the Minister can grant himself the power and arrange these amounts as he wishes, without having to come to Parliament, discuss and vote on it.

“The Minister has the same vote as each and every one of us,” Aquilina said, adding that Attard consulted with nobody, and did this in hopes of not getting caught.

Aquilina said that the draft bill was rushed suddenly, which raises suspicions. The bill was published quickly last week, he said. Yet, government has yet to publish the feedback from the public consultation document published earlier this year, Aquilina said.

He also said he was “scandalised” at the fact that no drug trafficker has ever been sentenced to life imprisonment for this crime and appealed to judges and magistrates to be harsher in their sentences to drug traffickers.

“There should be no mercy. The damage drugs cause in the country is enormous. Families were broken due to drugs, people were destroyed, and yet we have a generation which largely abuses of drugs,” he said.

Aquilina said that Malta is “bursting” with drug trafficking and consumption, and the current situation is that if one makes use of drugs, they have a “certification of normality.”

“Government is not fighting the fight against drugs,” Aquilina said, adding that if it does not realise the situation of large drug trafficking and consumption, government cannot start discussing this bill.

He said that only the PN is talking about the fight against drugs and trafficking, while the other side is treating them nicely.

“We need to fight drug trafficking first, to prevent the creation of more victims,” Aquilina said.

He said that the bill as proposed earlier this year through government’s White Paper was the continuation of normalisation of drugs in Malta, and incentivised drug abuse.

Aquilina also said that the message government is sending by sending drug traffickers to the Court of Magistrates rather than the Criminal Court is that drug trafficking is not a grave act and can receive a lesser sentence and avoid jury proceedings.

He said that government is trying to solve the problem of having 150 people waiting for jury by changing the law so that drug traffickers do not undergo jury proceedings, and do not receive lengthier sentences – “as a form of relief.”

Aquilina pointed out that this was also not mentioned in the public consultation document earlier this year.

“The Minister gave the impression that the consensus was wide, however, there was surprise from stakeholders that certain things were not mentioned in the public consultation,” Aquilina said, adding that even certain words were intentionally left out.

Aquilina said that Attard must publish the feedback documents after ending a public consultation, and must also consult again if he wishes to add new matters in the bill without mentioning it in the first public consultation.

“Today, our country has a drug problem, which while it is no longer featuring on the national agenda, it is a reality many people are worried about, about the normalisation of drug use, and a culture where drugs are acceptable,” Aquilina said, urging government to take the fight against drugs with the utmost seriousness.

In his speech in Parliament, Attard spoke of government’s “human and effective” approach in the fight against drugs, which is easily a subject of controversy.

He accused the PN of spreading misinformation and politically “spinning” the White Paper it issued on the drug reforms earlier this year. The new reform compliments government’s earlier reform which gives drug victims a chance to rehabilitate, and not be treated as a criminal, he said.

Attard said that currently, the law excludes the possibility of a person facing drug-related procedures from being given a suspended sentence or probation.

“In order to create a fair balance for those who, for some reason or another, end up as victims of drugs but do not qualify for the drug court, this new concept is being introduced, which allows the court, at its discretion, when it is dealing with a first-time offender who is set to receive a sentence of less than two years, to issue a Probation Order,” he said.

Attard said this will provide a greater chance for rehabilitation while ensuring supervision.

He said that after discussing various possibilities including suspended sentences, probation is being proposed, which offers the possibility to follow and monitor individuals and give them a chance to rehabilitate.

Attard said this amendment came about after strong discussions between the National Agency Sedqa, Caritas Malta, and the OASI Foundation.

The bill proposes that the number of members appointed to the Board of Rehabilitation is to increase from four members to seven, and for a requirement to be introduced that would mean there has to be at least four board members to be present for a meeting to be valid.

Attard said that a number of members need to be people who have experience in the field of rehabilitation from drug dependency.

He continued that the proposed amendments clarify that a qualification would be introduced for a court case to convert to a drug court in the sense that the offence needs to have occurred during a period where the accused was dependent on drugs and the offence is substantially attributable to dependency.

Attard said the bill also amends the amount of drugs that serve as a guideline for the Attorney General to determine whether a case is heard by a magistrate’s court, or whether the case is heard in front of a jury, where the maximum punishment for each court changes from a 10-year prison sentence to life in prison.