Pubdate: Tue, 13 Jan 1998
Author: Dan Collins
Source: The Examiner (Ireland) 
Contact: DUNPHY APOLOGY FOR IRRESPONSIBLE DRUGS COMMENTS  

ONE of this country's most effusive journalists has said his views on
illegal drugs, quoted in a newspaper, were irresponsible and should not
have been uttered in the public domain.

Last night, Eamon Dunphy, anchorman with Today FM and presenter of the
popular The Last Word programme, withdrew the comments which appeared in
Ireland On Sunday.

"There is no one else to blame, not the newspaper and not the journalist
who interviewed me. I am the one to blame, the buck stops here," he said.

When asked in the newspaper interview if offered would he take cocaine, Mr
Dunphy responded — "F***ing yes. I take it if I am offered. I would be a
regular user of marijuana, but I am not a regular user of coke. You can't
get good coke in this town."

He also told Ireland On Sunday that he desired to try crack but said it was
impossible to buy on the streets.

Last night, a regretful Mr Dunphy said he had made those comments in a
jocose and tongue-in-cheek fashion and regretted if they had offended
people, including the gardaí, who are "seriously engaged in dealing with
the consequences of drugs."

He was withdrawing his comments "out of respect for those people. This was
no fault of anybody's, except mine."

Mr Dunphy stressed he was not being flippant about the "dreadful
contemporary reality of drugs. I am fully cognisant of the havoc and
destruction which drug abuse has caused to far too many families in Ireland
and I certainly do not wish to undermine the work of many groups and
individuals in their efforts to discourage abuse."

And he issued an unreserved apology for his remarks "to the very many
people to whom they have caused offence."

Yesterday, a spokesman for the National Drugs Unit said he was surprised by
Mr Dunphy's remarks in relation to crack cocaine, one of the most addictive
substances on the black market.