Finance Minister: 'Unlike Clinton, I DID inhale!'

Heineken Helen

Guess who's looking for the young votes . This is potentially our future Taoiseach.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0517/breaking38.htm

Ministers say they 'never tried' cannabis
Elaine Edwards

Two Fianna Fáil ministers have said they never tried cannabis after Minister for Finance Brian Cowen admitted in an interview he had smoked the drug at college.

Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea and Minister of State at the Department of Health Brian Lenihan were unveiling the party's policy on crime and justice in Dublin today.

Senator Cyprian Brady, the party's spokesman in the Seanad on Fianna Fáil's drugs strategy, was first asked was he "dismayed" to read that the deputy party leader and Minister for Finance Brian Cowen had "not only sampled, but inhaled cannabis".

"No, I certainly wasn't. I mean, let's face it, when people are young and they're teenagers, you know, every kid will experiment at some stage. That's the nature of being a teenager. And to be quite honest with you, I think we would rather be talking about where we are going and what we can be doing to prevent the effects that are out there of the misuse of drugs."

Both Mr O'Dea and Mr Lenihan were asked had they ever tried cannabis.

Mr O'Dea said: "No, I didn't actually."

Mr Lenihan said: "No, I was a very serious young man. I was a scholar at Trinity College and a head boy at Belvedere College in my day, so I wasn't that type. But I saw plenty of it going on."

Speaking during an interview in Hot Press magazine published today, Mr Cowen was quoted as saying: "Anybody who went to the UCD bar in the seventies and didn't get a whiff of marijuana would be telling you a lie.

"I would say there were a couple of occasions when it was passed around and, unlike President Clinton, I did inhale," he added.

It was put to Senator Brady that Mr Cowen's action "doesn't send out a great example".

He replied: "People take their own things from these things, and to be quite honest with you, you know, it's not a matter of setting an example. What we can do is we can show what we can do to continue the work that has been done, particularly under the drugs strategy, to prevent kids becoming addicted to drugs."

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/politics/article2554491.ece

The Labour Party is promising to provide more resources to the Gardai and the Criminal Assets Bureau to help crack down on crime gangs.
The party says the billion-euro drugs trade is affecting every part of Ireland and needs to be tackled as a whole rather than on a compartmentalised basis.

Launching its election proposals on crime today, Labour said it didn't think legalising soft drugs would help solve the current crisis.

Both Brendan Howlin and Ruairi Quinn also refused to say if they had ever taken cannabis when questioned about Brian Cowen's admission that he smoked the drug in the 1970s.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0517/election2.html

Mr O'Dea added that 'in Brian's case it seems to have done no long term damage'.

Hitch-Hiker

Seriously, who cares. I aint voting for FF regardless.

Heineken Helen

Hitch-Hiker wrote:

Seriously, who cares. I aint voting for FF regardless.

I know... but of ALL things to say a week before election... he'd been doing well til now

I ain't voting for em either. Socialist party are getting my vote I've decided . Joe Higgins is the only one in my area who actually seems to physically DO anything about anything.

Braighni

Good to see you're voting Helen.

Heineken Helen

Braighni wrote:

Good to see you're voting Helen.

Well new information came to light to change my opinion