Malta to open Cannabis Social Clubs in February 2023

A Slow Start to the Launch of Cannabis Clubs in Malta. The country which had planned to open its first social clubs in 2022 postpones the start of the license application period until 2023.

The Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis (ARUC) will be able to begin accepting applications for cannabis club licenses by next February, according to Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg.

Speaking in Parliament, Ms. Buttigieg said that prospective cannabis businesses will be able to apply for a license next year, according to reports by MaltaToday.

Malta legalized cannabis last year, allowing people to grow up to four cannabis plants in their private homes. Aside from personal cultivation, cannabis associations are the only legal way for people to obtain cannabis products. However, no cannabis club is currently authorized to operate.

Cannabis Clubs are associations of growers who pool their resources and share the harvest among their members.

A regulatory authority, ARUC, was established as part of the reform to regulate these associations. The Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis was tasked with regulating the sector while carrying out initiatives to educate, raise awareness, and engage stakeholders in the sector.

Mariella Dimech, former coordinator of Caritas’s drug rehabilitation programs, was the agency’s first executive director. She was appointed in 2021 for a three-year term but was removed from her position earlier this month.

In a statement announcing her dismissal, Ms. Dimech said that she had spent her term working with «no staff, no budget, and a political and decision-making strategy with which I did not agree.».

Leonid McKay, the former director of Caritas who was rather cautious about cannabis legalization, has since been appointed executive president of the agency, much to the chagrin of local pro-legalization groups.

«Releaf Malta does not endorse the newly appointed president, Leonid McKay, due to his past prohibitionist stances against cannabis users and his years at Caritas spent dehumanizing the voices of cannabis users and labeling us as sick patients in need of rehabilitation,» Releaf Malta stated.