The North American cannabis industry has certainly seen better days. The river of money poured into this sector has been slowly drying up, and consolidation is taking longer than anticipated. However, while North America is slowing down, the rest of the world is (slowly) catching up. Considering that the road was already paved by Canada and the US, other countries looking at setting up a cannabis sector can rely on prime case studies to build their regulatory framework better. It is within this context that the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has held a webinar to explore what some countries are doing to avoid repeating the same mistakes Canada and the US made. Three were the countries under scrutiny: Malta, Germany, and the Netherlands. Let’s have a look at Malta, first.
Malta
In 2021, Malta became the first EU country to partially decriminalize cannabis. On top of that, it also allowed the establishment of a regulatory framework to set up a not-for-profit system to grow and distribute cannabis. Right after the law took effect, Malta’s Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis was born. This authority is pivotal to the success of the local cannabis sector, as one of its main aims is to register and license not-for-profit associations – also known as Cannabis Social Clubs, in other countries such as Spain.
“Malta doesn’t perceive cannabis as a commodity in the free market,” says Leonid McKay, chairperson of the cannabis Authority. “The reform is not about maximizing profits. Rather, it’s about a new economic niche, without embedding this model into our free market.” In other words, the focus of the cannabis sector in Malta is not on providing access to a profitable free market to all those who can jump in, but the focus is purely on public health and harm reduction. “Full-blown free market goes against harm reduction. Our goal is to have a shift of existing cannabis users from the illicit market towards a more regulated, safe, and not-for-profit sector.” It is not surprising, then, that the cannabis reform was brought up by a grassroots movement of cannabis users. “The starting point was a very much community-based journey, with cannabis users as the main objectives.
Harm reduction and not-for-profit
So, what does harm reduction mean? “As an authority, we are not about promoting cannabis use. In fact, we want to discourage and delay use,” said Leonid. At the same time, that doesn’t mean that existing cannabis users are dependent on illicit market sources. A solution for that? “Home growing,” Leonid said. “This is a very important tool to address the perils of the illicit market.” Of course, this home growing comes with some limitations, such as max 4 plants per household, and max 50gr for personal use, which cannot be sold or shared.
Next to home growing, there’s the association part of the reform. These associations work quite similarly to how Cannabis Social Clubs work in Spain. The Authority oversees these cannabis associations and keeps them in check with regards to SOPs, product labeling, and the like. “To set up an association, it’s a requirement to have 2 founders that have been resident in Malta for 5 consecutive years,” Leonid points out. “As said, this should operate on a not-for-profit basis.” In other words, any surplus money must be reinvested in the association. “The goal of such associations is to grow and distribute cannabis to its members for their personal use. These members cannot be more than 500, and they all equally own the association in question. The point of limiting the number of members is to prevent a big club from taking control of the cannabis reform, and to have a monopoly over other cannabis users.”
“An important element of harm reduction is that we as Authority expect associations to undergo training on indeed harm reduction.” The first harm reduction training will be held by November's end of this year.
Malta surely underwent quite the regulatory effort to come up with a framework from scratch, the success of which remains to be seen. So far, the first prospective licenses have already been issued to several associations. Leonid also has personally visited two sites. By the end of the year, there most likely is going to be the first operational license under the Maltese cannabis harm reduction reform.
Stay tuned for the second part, where we will explore Germany and the Netherlands!