An Estimated 750 People Have Joined Malta’s Legal Cannabis Clubs

In late 2021, Malta became the first European nation to pass a national adult-use cannabis legalization measure. Before Malta’s legalization measure was approved, only Uruguay and Canada had passed a national adult-use measure. Since that time, Luxembourg and Germany have also passed national legalization measures.

Malta’s legalization model relies upon home cultivation and noncommercial cannabis clubs for consumers to legally source their cannabis. Malta issued its first noncommercial cannabis club license in October 2023 and issued multiple other club licenses by the end of the calendar year.

The world recently received an update from Malta regarding how many consumers have signed up for club memberships so far. Per Times of Malta:

A total of 750 people have joined cannabis associations in their first month of operation, the Reforms Parliamentary Secretary said on Monday.

Three legal cannabis clubs have each started distributing the drug to 250 members since the end of January, and so far the data shows all members had previously used cannabis, Rebecca Buttigieg said during a press briefing.

According to survey data from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 22% of Malta’s citizens have consumed cannabis at least once in their lifetime, and roughly 7% of Maltese citizens report having consumed cannabis at least once in the last year.

Malta has a population of roughly 518,000 people, so seven percent of that figure would equate to over 36,000 people.

Obviously, not all of the reported once-a-year consumers use cannabis frequently enough to necessitate joining a cannabis club. Furthermore, many consumers presumably cultivate their own cannabis now that it is legal to do so in Malta. These factors are significant to keep in mind for contextual purposes when considering Malta’s current cannabis club membership levels.