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Ireland: Ministers say they never tried cannabis
Elaine Edwards Irish Times
Thursday 17 May 2007 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.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0517/breaking38.htm
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