ARUC says cannabis driving tests should target ‘impairment’ after concerns

ARUC Says Cannabis Driving Tests Should Target ‘Impairment’ After Concerns
Hot Malta, 12 June 2024

The island’s roads could soon see a shift in how police gauge cannabis impairment behind the wheel, after the Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis (ARUC) urged lawmakers to ditch blanket THC limits and focus instead on whether a driver is actually impaired. The recommendation, tabled in Parliament yesterday, comes only two years after Malta became the first EU state to legalise personal cultivation and non-profit cannabis clubs, and it lands squarely in the middle of a national conversation about Mediterranean road culture, summer party traffic, and Maltese identity itself.

Speaking during a committee debate on the Road Traffic Act, ARUC chairperson Mariella Dimech argued that “a driver who smoked a joint three days ago is not necessarily a danger today, while someone who hot-boxed five minutes ago absolutely can be.” The comment drew murmurs of agreement from both government and opposition benches—an unusually unified moment in a chamber otherwise split on everything from fuel subsidies to Gozo tunnel tolls. Dimech’s proposal: replace the existing zero-tolerance THC blood limit with roadside behavioural tests similar to the Field Impairment Assessment (FIA) already used for alcohol and prescription drugs.

For Maltese motorists, the stakes feel personal. The archipelago registers one of Europe’s highest vehicle-per-capita ratios—630 cars for every 1,000 residents—and summer brings an additional 2.5 million tourists scooting around on rented e-bikes and battered Peugeots. Weekend village festa processions already clog narrow streets with brass-band floats and wafting pyrotechnics; add late-night beach club goers who may have shared a spliff in St Julian’s or Mellieħa, and traffic police say they are “chasing shadows,” unsure whether a blood test result reflects impairment or simply Monday’s home-grown stash.

“Zero tolerance sounded tough on paper,” Inspector Karl Briffa told Hot Malta outside the Valletta police depot, “but in practice it punishes a medical user who consumed a CBD tincture yesterday, while a recreational user who micro-doses but drives aggressively slips through.” Briffa, who oversees the Central Division’s drug-recognition unit, welcomed ARUC’s call for an impairment-based model. He envisions officers trained to test reaction times, pupil dilation, and balance—skills already taught at the Paola police academy, albeit without cannabis-specific benchmarks.

The cultural dimension is hard to ignore. Cannabis has threaded quietly through Maltese life for decades—clandestine rooftop grows in Sliema, reggae nights at Għanafest, and nonna-approved kannella tea blends sold at farmers’ markets. Legalisation in 2021 didn’t so much create a new subculture as drag an old one into the sunlight. Clubs like Ta’ Xbiex’s non-profit “High Seas” now host public education sessions on safe dosing, and last month’s Earth Garden festival featured a mock-up car where revellers attempted sobriety tests after consuming calibrated edibles. ARUC’s proposal builds on that grassroots openness: treat cannabis like alcohol—socially accepted, regulated, and subject to common-sense road rules.

Yet not everyone is convinced. The Malta Association of Driving Schools warns that behavioural tests could be “too subjective” if officers lack updated equipment. “We need saliva kits that screen quickly, then FIA for confirmation,” spokesperson Cynthia Pace argued on TVM’s Xtra. Meanwhile, the Catholic youth group Cana Movement fears “normalising” cannabis use among new drivers already distracted by TikTok and coastal bends. Both positions underscore the uniquely Maltese cocktail of Mediterranean conservatism and frontier pragmatism.

If Parliament adopts ARUC’s model, Malta would join Germany and Luxembourg in pioneering impairment-centric cannabis driving law within the EU—a potential template for Mediterranean neighbours like Spain and Italy watching closely. Back home, the change could free police to focus on real hazards: overloaded Gozo Channel vans, Deliveroo riders on twisty Birkirkara backstreets, and the perennial tourist who confuses left-hand roundabouts with Roman chariot races.

For ordinary Maltese, the message is simpler. As Dimech put it, “Responsible use means you can still drive to your nanna’s for rabbit stew on Sunday—just don’t toke up before you turn the ignition.” Whether that balance can survive the summer heat, the festa fireworks, and a nation that loves its cars as much as its kinnie remains to be seen.