Malta’s Zero-Tolerance Drug-Driving Bill Hits Parliament: What Legal Cannabis Users Need to Know

**Parliament to Tackle Drink-Drug Driving in Landmark Bill: “One Joint Can Cost a Life”**

Valletta – A sweeping overhaul of Malta’s road-safety laws landed in parliament last night, promising zero-tolerance for drivers who mix wheels with weed, wine or white lines. The “Traffic Safety (Amendment) Bill, 2024” introduces roadside saliva swabs, instant 48-hour licence suspensions and fines of up to €5,000 for anyone caught driving under the influence of drugs—including cannabis prescribed legally on the island since 2021.

Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia told MPs the change was long overdue: “We were the first EU country to legalise recreational cannabis, yet we remain the last to set clear drug-driving limits. That paradox ends today.”

Malta’s 2021 cannabis reform made global headlines, but it left a legal grey area: what constitutes “impaired” driving when possession of up to 7 g is legal? Until now, police had to prove psychomotor impairment in court—a process that could take months and often collapsed on technicalities. The new bill sets quantitative limits for 17 substances, including THC, cocaine and MDMA, mirroring models used in Germany and Scotland. Drivers who exceed the limits face automatic prosecution, licence withdrawal and up to 12 months in jail.

Road-safety NGOs welcomed the clarity. “We’ve been begging for this since 2018,” said Mary-Grace Vella, founder of local victims’ group Families for Road Respect. “Every summer we light candles at makeshift roadside shrines. Last August it was a 19-year-old courier who smoked a joint at Paceville and T-boned a family on the Tal-Barrani flyover. The baby survived; he didn’t. A swab test that night could have saved him.”

The statistics are stark. Malta registered 18 traffic fatalities in 2023, the highest per-capita rate in the EU. One in four post-mortem blood samples tested positive for cannabis, up from 8 % in 2019, according to Mater Dei Hospital’s forensic unit. Dr. Josienne Aquilina, head of emergency medicine, told Hot Malta the weekend pattern is unmistakable: “Saturday night, 3 a.m., multiple trauma cases, young males, THC-positive. We call it ‘the Maltese midnight formula’.”

Yet the bill faces pushback from the very community that celebrated legalisation. Andrei Camilleri, spokesperson for the cannabis social club Ta’ Zelli, argues the THC limit—set at 5 ng/ml in whole blood—punishes medicinal users. “A patient who micro-doses for chronic pain could be over the limit 24 hours after consumption, yet perfectly capable of driving. We’re criminalising the cure, not the behaviour.”

Gozo’s rural taxi drivers fear economic fallout. “American tourists hire me for vineyard tours,” said driver Carmel Grech, 58, from Xewkija. “If they smoked yesterday in Amsterdam and test positive today, I lose my licence for something that happened outside Malta. Where’s the fairness?”

Opposition MPs tabled a last-minute amendment to introduce “drug-driving awareness” lessons in secondary schools and subsidised personal breathalyser kits. Nationalist transport spokesperson Robert Cutajar warned: “We can’t police our way out of a cultural problem. Maltese men still equate driving with virility. Add cheap cannabis and 24-hour petrol stations—recipe for tragedy.”

The debate is also coloured by Malta’s festa season. Summer village feasts, with their roadside beer stalls and late-night processions, traditionally see spikes in DUI arrests. This year, police will deploy portable saliva kits outside major band marches in Birkirkara, Żejtun and Nadur. “You can smell the weed mixed with petards,” said Sergeant Lara Bugeja, the force’s first female traffic motorcyclist. “We’re not out to ruin the feast. We’re out to keep the statue of St Mary upright—and the pedestrians around it alive.”

If passed, the law will come into force on 1 October, just before the busy Christmas party season. The government is pairing enforcement with an €800,000 campaign fronted by local influencer and reformed addict “Ketamine Karl”, whose viral TikTok videos depict him crashing a go-kart while high. “Laugh, share, then think,” Karl told Hot Malta. “One joint can cost a life. I should know—I’ve cost two.”

For families who have buried children, the bill is a bittersweet victory. “It won’t bring Jake back,” said Karen Spiteri, whose 22-year-old son died in a cannabis-related collision in 2022. “But if a swab stops another mother from lighting a candle on a asphalt altar, parliament must vote yes—no amendments, no delays.”

The second reading continues next Tuesday. Expect tears, statistics and maybe a last-minute joint—sorry, joint-committee—meeting.