Everything seems to be allowed nowadays! It is evident that the upcoming generation will not allow any restrictions. Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, with a huge emphasis on Liberté.
Only a few hours after the introduction of civil unions, which in my opinion was a huge step forward in the right direction, the Maltese Prime Minister Dr. Joseph Muscat announced that the next thing to be introduced in Malta will be the decriminalisation of certain drugs.
Primarily, one needs to understand the difference between decriminalisation and legalisation. Decriminalisation doesn’t mean that the act is approved by the government, it means if a person is caught doing that act instead of being prosecuted he would get a fine or be warned; for example, if a person is caught over speeding he won’t go to prison, but would just get a ticket.
Contrary to what a lot of people think, cannabis is not legalised in the Netherlands, it is just considered as a soft drug and there is no active prosecution against soft drugs, although they still remain illegal.
Maybe most of us would agree that an eleven year prison sentence is a bit extreme for a person who was caught using cannabis for his own personal use. But why shouldn’t the government work on introducing less harsh penalties for those who are caught with small amount of cannabis? Decriminalising some drugs for first-time offenders means that everyone will have one freebie, that if one has never been caught smoking cannabis, he can smoke it without worrying that he might face charges.
Some might claim that even though it’s an illegal substance, a lot of people still make use of cannabis frequently. Yes it’s true, but don’t you think that people, especially young people will be much more exposed to this substance? And if fines are given to those who are caught making use of cannabis, it would mean that they can buy a permission to break the law.
The philosophy that the use of some drugs should not be as severely punished as others might be good, but the question still remains whether decriminalising some drugs is a step forward or two steps back.
