A record quantity of cannabis was seized at Larnaca airport in 2024 the drug squad reported. There were 14 cases accounting for 194kg which was one third of the total quantity (617kg) seized last year. In 2023 there were 11 drug busts at Larnaca airport and the quantity of cannabis seized was 106kg.

In short, the quantity seized almost doubled from one year to the next. This does not necessarily mean that more quantities of cannabis are being brought in – this might be the result of more effective measures being enforced by the customs department and the drug squad. Then again there is an upward trend. Before mid-March of this year 40kg of cannabis were seized at Larnaca airport, indicating 2024’s record would be broken.

These quantities suggest that cannabis use is widespread in Cyprus and demand for it is on an upward path. While there has been an influx of young professional foreigners, who may like to use marijuana, in recent years, it is extremely unlikely they are causing demand to keep rising. We suspect use of cannabis, particularly among youth, has become as common as smoking of cigarettes once was.

Deputy chief of the drug squad, Christos Andreou, told Politis newspaper that clamping down on drugs was very difficult, saying that “drug seizures have recorded a steep rise in the last years.”  This, he said, was “proved by the number of cases that are taken to court in the last years.” Dr Kyriakos Veresies, who has been leading the fight against drugs for decades and heads an NGO (Kenthea) that helps drug addicts, told the Sunday Mail that demand for cannabis was just too great and this was the “new reality.”

The state-sponsored demonisation of cannabis use, combined by long prison sentences imposed by judges for possession of small quantities of the drug, failed spectacularly to discourage use. So did the scaremongering by politicians, the media and campaigners like Dr Veresies in the last 40 years, when they all referred to marijuana as ‘white death’ and ‘slow death.’ All these alarmist lies may have frightened parents, but youths quite clearly ignored them and cannabis use appears to have become as popular and widespread as it is in most European countries.  

Now, everyone must recognise the new reality of widespread use and accept that the punitive approach does not work. Dr Veresies, once a ‘no-tolerance’ advocate, now supports the de-criminalisation of possession of all drugs – the so-called Portuguese model which considers possession illegal but sends offenders to treatment centres rather than bringing criminal charges against them. The method is used by the police in Cyprus in the case of teenagers caught in possession of a small quantity of cannabis, but it does not apply to everyone, even though people caught with a few grammes of marijuana do not end up in prison as would happen 10 and 20 years ago.

Cyprus society is too conservative to accept legalisation of cannabis, which would raise many millions for the state in taxes. But the government must consider the decriminalisation of possession of small quantities of cannabis, which is no more harmful than alcohol. It is outrageous that youths could end up with a criminal record, which restricts employment opportunities, for possession of a small quantity of weed.