New rules to legalise medicinal cannabis products would under no circumstances allow smokeable cannabis to be sold legally, Health Minister Chris Fearne told parliament on Monday as he said the government was in no way "soft on drugs".
Speaking during a debate on amendments to the Treatment not Imprisonment Act first introduced in 2015, Mr Fearne emphasised that it was the medical, and not recreational, use of cannabis and cannabis-derived products that was under discussion.
Legal amendments would allow any registered doctor, including general practitioners, to prescribe the use of cannabinoid derivatives for medical use at their discretion in cases where no alternatives were available.
Products in question had to be medical in nature, and produced under the good manufacturing practices common to all legal medication.
TIMES TALK: 'Marijuana use is a personal choice,' says Fearne
The Health Minister mooted the possibility of Malta becoming a production centre for medical cannabis and associated products, with the appropriate safeguards in place.
Opposition MP Stephen Spiteri said the Opposition was fully behind the law, but called for efforts to prevent the misuse and/or abuse...
