Malta Becomes First European Country to Legalize Marijuana
Malta, a tiny nation in the Mediterranean Sea, has just become the first European nation to fully legalize marijuana. It did so by an act of Parliament just after the end of 2021, which opened the door to legal cannabis for the rest of the European Union.
The law was originally introduced by Owen Bonnici, the Maltese minister for equality, research and innovation, and aims to reduce criminal marijuana trafficking as well as end consumer oppression. of marijuana without glorifying marijuana use. Parliament approved draft 36-27.
This new law is distinct from the legalization bills that appeared in the United States, as it explicitly prohibits cannabis businesses from making a profit. Instead, the sale of marijuana should be handled by non-profit organizations, which can sell a maximum of 50 grams of product per customer per month. Maltese law now allows individuals to grow their own marijuana plants, however, up to four plants. It remains illegal to consume marijuana in public, and one can only carry seven grams of cannabis on one’s person while outside, but the penalty is light, a fine of less than € 100 without any threat of arrest. or a permanent note on the person. record.
As such, Malta has become the third nation in the world to fully legalize marijuana, after Uruguay in 2013 and Canada in 2018. Other countries have legalized the possession and use of marijuana, such as Georgia and South Africa, but there is no legal distribution system, unlike in Malta.
Malta has seized the title of third country with legal marijuana from under the noses of several other European nations. The new German government has promised to fully legalize it in the immediate future; Luxembourg is expected to legalize it by mid-2022; Italy is preparing for a referendum aimed at legalizing the possession and cultivation of the cannabis home. Outside of Europe, Mexico is under orders from its Supreme Court to legalize recreational marijuana, although the country’s legislators have been dragging their feet, allowing Malta and potentially other countries to go down in history instead of their country.
Game Changer
After half a century of oppression, marijuana seems to be on the verge of full reform across the European Union. Due to the free movement of goods and people, any citizen of any member country of the Union is now free to buy legal weeds in Malta, which is changing the game for neighboring nations now under pressure to react.
The European Union has long relied on the Dutch policy of tolerating (absolutely illegal) marijuana use in its famous coffee shops for decades, making Amsterdam one one of the most attractive tourist destinations on the continent. Now that one country offers in fact legal Weed more than promises that the police will turn a blind eye, up to $ 10 billion in annual tourism revenue is expected to be diverted away from Amsterdam and to Malta and any country that follows the EU’s smallest member in legalizing adult marijuana. The Netherlands itself may need to reformulate its national cannabis policy to remain relevant.
By December 2021, all legal cannabis options were located in North America, mostly North America. Now that it has broken the EU border, other member nations will be forced to act swiftly, whether they agree to reform or redouble repression. Like the U.S. states that banned cannabis saw their residents drive across state borders and come home with their bags full of legal weeds bought in the states that legalized it, European countries they will no longer be able to ignore the reality of cannabis popularity.
Only one question remains: Which European countries will choose to do the rational thing and legalize it, and which countries will direct their internal GOP and embrace the Prohibition from the outside? The latter may discover, like Wisconsin, that going against the march of history simply means diverting mountains of potential revenue into the pockets of your smarter neighbors.