Malta’s former cannabis chief has opened up for the first time publicly about her sacking – and how hurt she was by the “personal attacks” she faced after she lost her job.

Mariella Dimech, Malta’s first chief of the newly set up Authority for the Responsible Use for Cannabis, was sacked 10 months into her job amidst accusations of little to no movement in the new sector.

She appeared on Andrew Azzopardi’s radio show on RTK to open about about what happened, and, getting emotional, Dimech hit back at accusations that she didn’t get the job done.

“What I don’t appreciate was the message – direct or not – that I didn’t work for a whole year, because I really worked,” she said. “Who knows me knows, they made fun of me with a lot of things, but they can’t say I didn’t work.”

“I worked a lot. I worked from home, as well as from the small office they gave me in the same office as LGBT. And I was only in the finished office for two weeks,” she continued.

When appointed to the role, a hopeful Dimech had even told Lovin Malta that cannabis clubs would be up and running by 2022. However, within months, it became apparent things weren’t moving as swiftly as she had predicted, and she soon began ignoring media requests with no new updates given for months, before being suddenly fired.

Since her sacking, she’s been given a new government job – now, she advises on drug prevention. 

Dimech said that during her tenure, she wasn’t given the appropriate resources to do her job, pointing towards a small office as an example of the lack of support she felt.

“Even though I didn’t have many resources, we created the foundation for what we are seeing today – and I don’t believe my successor (Leonid McKay) would say I did nothing.”

She then turned to her own time in the role. 

“I was very naive to think I can enter this role… at this age, I can’t believe I was that naive,” she said. “I’m not a woman who understands politics, I’m assertive but I was broken by the attacks, I couldn’t understand how someone does three decades working with people… and then people say my professional interest was just for money or for political reasons…”

“If they wanted to hurt me, they succeeded.”