A leading Canadian cannabis producer will be shipping some 500kg of the plant out of Malta ever year after it was given the go-ahead to start operating by local authorities.
Zenabis Global announced on Friday that its Maltese joint venture, ZenPharm Limited, has received its medicinal cannabis license from the Maltese regulatory authorities.
It plans to start shipping around half a ton of cannabis out of Malta annually, with its medicinal cannabis license allowing ZenPharm to commence commercial shipments to the EU, where Germany is ZenPharm s most prominent target market.
The company, which will operate from Ħal Far Industrial Estate, will not be growing cannabis locally. Instead, it will import cannabis from its Canadian partner Zenabis, process it locally and then export it to the EU and UK.
The supremacy of our Constitution is the keystone upon which the entire Constitutional structure rests. Our courts are empowered to strike down laws which are found to be inconsistent with the Constitution and in particular those laws which breach the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual set forth in our Constitution.
The European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of Malta have in a number of cases ruled that the infliction of an administrative penalty in a case where it retained its criminal character could only be imposed by an independent and impartial court. Our courts have also made it amply clear that at all stages of proceedings considered to be criminal, applicants had a right of access to a court, namely one presided over by a magistrate or a judge.
Parliament is currently debating Bill 198 ,amending the Interpretation Act. On the face of it, the bill appears to be an innocuous piece of draft legislation. In fact, however, it contains provisions that undermine the supremacy of the constitution and make nonsense of the review by our Constitutional Court of government actions.
Prominent constitutional experts, including Giovanni Bonello, a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights, and Anthony Borg Barthet, a former attorney general and former member of the European Court of Justice, have criticised its provisions and have alerted public opinion to the fact that this is an attempt at altering the constitution without following the proper procedure, namely, obtaining the support of a two-thirds majority of all the members of the House of Representatives.
Newsbook
January 22, 2021 8:57 PM
Minister for Tourism and Consumer Protection Clayton Bartolo and Parliamentary Secretary for Consumer Protection and Public Cleansing Deo Debattista signs MOU between the MCCAA and the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority
The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA) and the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral cooperation.
The MCCAA and the Ghana FDA have a shared goal, that of increased well-being of consumers with the overall aim of improving quality of life in society.
This MoU will provide a formal framework for cooperation between the two authorities.
Real support
I was very satisfied to read in the Times of Malta (December 12) the good news about a pilot project aimed at supporting expectant parents during and after pregnancy. The programme is designed to fit principally the particular needs of pregnant women and offer help to those with signs of anxiety or depression. Fathers will also be screened as they too can be subject to the same issues.
The screening and much-required guidance and support will be given during the expecting mother’s visits to hospital and even after birth, until the baby is between five and six weeks old, with home visits by a midwife.