Dogs getting high and coke in banana crates. This isn't the apocalypse I signed up for

What are we skinning? Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg recounting an anecdote in parliament which tells of how a blind man's guide dog was allegedly - and, one hopes, only temporarily - incapacitated by second-hand cannabis smoke during a restaurant visit, and how this serves as a synecdoche of the chaos that awaits us as the Labour Party's insistence on relaxing marijuana use gets underway.

Why are we skinning it? Because it's about dogs allegedly getting high? It's also about the PN's seemingly perpetual insistence on remaining in Opposition, but more on that later (more, much more...)

Did it actually happen, though? The Times of Malta fact-checker seems to have made some investigative headway on this front. Yes, the person does exist, though the science is a bit on the fence about the original supposition.

What is the political mileage to be gained from this, though? I suppose it's down to trying to depict a more relaxed marijuana-consumption scenario as something that'll ultimately affect the most vulnerable.

How do you mean? Well, showing the supposed (unwitting, second-hand, and therefore uncontrollable) effects of marijuana on a blind man and his poor dog tugs at the heartstrings in a very potent way.

It's the PN we are talking about, after all. Yes, the sob-story impulse of the charity-happy Catholic-conservatives is very much in evidence.

But it backfired, didn't it? Insofar as it gave way to quite a bit of online mockery and such, I suppose it did, yeah.

No mean feat, when the meme-sphere is oversaturated with Love Island content at the moment. Such is the fate of the PN. Can't nab that youth vote, even if they're the butt of the joke.

What if they DID adopt a sense of humour about it? Imagine the possibilities.

Future-meme creation. When they KNOW they're about to say something dumb and cringe, and they create the memes in advance.

Mind-blowing stuff. It could be a game-changer.

I mean, all other avenues seem to be exhausted. With Buttigieg's entertainment background, it's all a bit disappointing to see.

It also implies a degree of self-awareness. That, and being in possession of anything resembling an inspired creative streak.

Maybe a few tokes at the doobie could get some juices flowing. As long as they don't actively ingest it, they'll be fine.

Do say: "While one can certainly question the Labour Party's drive to push forward with this particular bit of legislation in all of its aspects (because we live in a supposedly democratic society in which top-down measures should be scrutinised accordingly), citing anecdotal incidents to drum up old timey scaremongering tactics is rather cringe (to use the parlance of a population sector ever-elusive to the PN)."

Don't say: "Dogs getting high and coke in banana crates. This isn't the apocalypse I signed up for."