According to the national report on Malta’s drug situation which has just been published, during 2021 the number of people addicted to drugs who are choosing to seek help in a clinic or with an agency continued to increase.

Those seeking help are mostly addicted to cocaine, hashish and heroin. The report highlighted the fact that every year, cocaine continues to be the most addictive drug, which can be attributed to an increase in the purity of this drug, it said.

During the presentation of the report by Michael Falzon, Minister for Social Policy and Children’s Rights, it was explained that several points emerge from this report including that fewer people were brought to Court in connection with drug possession and trafficking during the year in question.

This can be attributed to a number of restrictions linked to the pandemic during that period and also for the fact that people who were caught with possession in small amounts were no longer brought to Court after the reform of the drug law.

From the report it also emerged that the use of synthetic drugs is mostly resulting in the emergency cases that hospitals are seeing, while fewer people are receiving treatment for heroin.

The Minister advised that a pilot project is currently underway to give the medicine buprenorphine, which has been found to have more positive effects than methadone.

He concluded by saying that prevention services continued to be strengthened, and the report also noted the awareness campaigns among teenagers, young people and even the strong investment on social media.

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