Opinion: Mariella Dimech Is Not The Victim Here
Mariella Dimech’s tearful rant about her short tenure in charge of the cannabis authority was very revealing.
If she is to believed, she was a victim of her own naivety in failing to make political alliances and suffered greatly from “personal attacks”.
It is clear that she suffered on a personal level, but why was this?
The main criticism Dimech faced was related to the lack of tangible progress in the cannabis reform she had been entrusted to spearhead.
And while her concerns related to the lack of resources she was provided is fair, it had also become evident that she had serious misgivings about the premise of the reform itself.
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Her job saw her stand to earn a tidy €82,000 a year. To put it in perspective, she earned €20,000 more a year than the Prime Minister, and that comes with huge responsibility.
If people don’t think you are performing, they will criticise you, and the best way to tackle this criticism is not to go on the defensive but to prove them wrong through your actions.
The Prime Minister is constantly criticised from all quarters – how petty would it look if he keeps complaining that he is a victim of “personal attacks”?
In Dimech’s case, if she wanted to appease her critics, she should have sped up the reform she was entrusted to see through. And if she was stymied by a lack of resources, she should have given clear signals that this was the case.
Instead, the signal she gave was that she had serious personal misgivings with the very principles of the reform, which, above all else, meant paving the way for the formation of cannabis associations.
She wasn’t hired to give expert psychological advice on the risks of cannabis consumption or to tweak the reform but to prepare the regulatory framework for cannabis associations.
The logic that led up to the reform was simple. With seemingly wide consensus among policymakers that cannabis users shouldn’t be arrested and dragged through the justice system, the next logical step should be to make sure they have a safe place where they can purchase the plant from.
Otherwise they will simply keep resorting to the black market, where there are zero checks on the product itself and no assurances that money won’t ultimately be funnelled into the pockets of dangerous criminals. Users were the real victims for years.
That discussion already took place within society and Parliament before Dimech was hired and the government’s direction was clear. Dimech’s task was simply to see it through. If she had moral concerns about the reform, she shouldn’t have taken on the job to begin with. Otherwise, she should have expected public pressure.
What do you make of Dimech’s breakdown of her tenure?
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