Malta has become the first European country to legalise the cultivation and personal use of marijuana.
Anyone over the age of 18 in Malta will now be allowed to grow a maximum of four cannabis plants at home, and will also be permitted to carry up to seven grams of cannabis.
However, smoking it in public or in front of children will be illegal.
A number of other countries in Europe have decriminalised marijuana use but Malta is the first nation to make it legal.
In a policy aimed at managing crime and health risks, the Netherlands allows the sale of small quantities of cannabis but officially it is illegal.
Owen Bonnici, the minister who sponsored the legislation in Malta, said the move aims to ‘stop treating people who are not criminals like criminals’ and ‘protect minors and society at large’.
He also said his government do not want to encourage the use of recreational drugs.
“There is a wave of understanding now that the hard-fist approach against cannabis users was disproportionate, unjust and it was rendering a lot of suffering to people who are leading exemplary lives,” Bonnici said. “But the fact that they make use on a personal basis of cannabis is putting them in the jaws of criminality.
He added: “I’m very glad that Malta will be the first country which will put words in statute in a comprehensive manner with a regulatory authority”.
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