NO Irish Government is going to legalise cannabis because it causes cancer, a former Minister of State with responsibility for drugs said yesterday. Fianna Fail MEP Eoin Ryan said the State would end up being sued in the courts if it legalised cannabis, similar to tobacco companies being sued in relation to cigarettes.

He was speaking at a conference in Dublin, which also heard calls from a retired US chief of police for an end to the war on drugs and a move towards legalisation. Mr Ryan said: a€oeWhat politician is going to get up and say legalise drugs. The problem is if a minister wanted to legalise cannabis, he would get endless amounts of medical evidence that cannabis is carcinogenic.a€

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The Government looked at legalising heroin in 2001, a former junior minister has claimed.

Eoin Ryan MEP told The Irish Times that he and Government officials visited Holland and Switzerland between 2001 and 2002 where heroin is dispensed to addicts for self-injection in designated clinics. Mr Ryan was minister of state with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy from 2000 to 2002.

"We looked at it to see how the heroin issue was being dealt with in Europe but in the event we came to the conclusion that legalisation was a very drastic step." He said that those addicts who were being prescribed heroin ended up using it for the rest of their lives. "The medical advice was that it was more realistic to get people off methadone."

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The prohibition against illicit street drugs should be ended as hard-line legislation against drugs is doomed to failure, a US police chief warned today.

Jerry Cameron, a police veteran with 17 years experience, urged the Irish Government not to make the same mistakes the United States has made in its war on drugs.

Mr Cameron said there was ample evidence the hard-line crackdown with severe prison sentences for possession of street drugs such as cannabis and heroin in America had failed to deal with the problem.

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SHOULD Michael MacDowell ever do Desert Island Discs, his list is unlikely to include the song Contemplating Contempt by obscure Nineties Irish rockers The Far Canals. The lyrics work better sung than read: "Write the law on a piece of paper/ Roll it up into a reefer/ Burn it!/ Smoke it!/ That's all it's worth!"

Despite rave reviews for their album, the band never really took off (which was particularly unfortunate for me, as their manager). But maybe they were just ahead of their time. If the results of last week's Oireachtas report on drugs can be believed, more than 300,000 Irish citizens now agree that our cannabis laws aren't worth the paper they're written on.

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Research commissioned by an Oireachtas committee has reportedly found that 300,000 young Irish people are regular users of cannabis.

Reports this morning said the study had found that most of those using cannabis are between the ages of 16 and 25, with 28,000 admitting to being dependent on the drug.

Some 5,000 Irish 16-year-olds reportedly admit to using cannabis, twice the EU average.

The findings are contained in a study due to published tomorrow by the Oireachtas committee on community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs.

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The police and political response to the murder of the journalist and mother Veronica Guerin - whose 10th anniversary falls tomorrow - resulted in only limited success. Despite a vast investigation, only one of the many involved was convicted, and even that single conviction may be overturned.

Although a raft of legislation was passed in the immediate aftermath of the journalist's death, the number of so-called gangland murders has since increased, and the amount of illegal drugs sold and consumed has multiplied.

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THE number of people seeking treatment for cocaine abuse has doubled, according to new national figures.

The data shows that 311 people reported cocaine as their main drug of abuse in 2003, compared to 155 in 2002.

A further 2,244 people said cocaine was a secondary problem drug in addition to their main drug of abuse, such as heroin. This compares to 1,716 in 2002 an increase of 30%. The two figures combined show that 2,555 people reported cocaine as one of their problem drugs in 2003, compared to 1,871 in 2002.

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MORE than eight-in-10 drug users who are on methadone to wean them off heroin continue to use cannabis, and some also use cocaine regularly, according to new research.

A study of multi-drug use among methadone-treated patients of the Health

Service Executive (HSE), North Dublin, found:

Of more than three-quarters of methadone patients with a history of cocaine use, more than one-third had used it within the last month.

12% of methadone users were also using cocaine daily.

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DRUG-RELATED admissions to Ireland's psychiatric hospitals have more than doubled since 1990, according to a new report on psychiatric services.

While approximately 105 patients were admitted to psychiatric hospitals with drug-related disorders 16 years ago, this had increased to more than 294 in 2001. The stabilisation of admissions since has been credited to an increase in the community services that treat drug addiction.

"It's simply mirroring what's going on in the community," said Dermot Walsh, one of the authors of Activities of Irish Psychiatric Services 2004, published by the Health Research Board. "There's been an increase in illegal drug use."

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Teachers today attacked the sale of a "totally unacceptable" book on drug addiction to primary schools.

The book, Issues 1, A Child Protection Handbook, provides details of drugs such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) said the material was totally unacceptable for children at primary level.

Its general secretary, John Carr, said: "The books contain detailed information on drugs, particularly speed, cocaine, heroin, magic mushrooms, ecstasy, solvents and amphetamines. It's geared totally for an older person and is not suitable for children at a primary school level."

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PARTISAN campaigners occasionally make outrageous claims to bolster their case.

However, when it comes to the issue of drugs, it seems that no statement is too nonsensical.

The recent controversies about magic mushrooms and cannabis highlight the fantasy world inhabited by so-called drugs experts.

Fine Gael's Health Spokesperson, Dr Liam Twomey, has repeatedly stated that magic mushrooms were rightly considered Class A drugs, along with heroin and cocaine, because they were addictive and could lead to fatal overdose.

The expert data flatly contradicts this. The most comprehensive report on mushrooms and their impact was carried out in 2003 by the Coordination Centre for the Assessment and Monitoring of New Drugs (CAM), a Dutch government agency.

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REGARDING Pat Leahy's thoughtful letter ('Only criminals gain from drugs ban,' Irish Examiner, February 13), the drug war is in large part a war on cannabis, by far the most popular illicit drug.

The 'monitoring the future' survey at the University of Michigan in the US reports that lifetime use of cannabis is higher in the US than any European country, yet America is one of the few western countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to Martini.

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A DISTURBING trend has emerged in relation to recreational drug use in Ireland and the State's response to it.

It appears that a new hard-line approach has been adopted towards this issue.

The U-turn on caution rather than prosecution for cannabis possession and the prohibition of magic mushrooms represent a step backwards in that it will do little apart from criminalise otherwise law-abiding citizens. Both of these substances are natural; they are plants that grow in the ground.

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Calling for the decriminalisation of all drugs, as Tony Geoghegan of the Merchant's Quay Project has done, is a controversial measure which will attract considerable criticism.

While he maintains that drug users should be treated under our health regime rather than as criminals, his point of view on the broader issue will be undoubtedly considered extreme.

Periodically, the question of legalising cannabis for recreational use has occasioned public debate, and continues to do so, but to endeavour to extend societal acceptance to other drugs such as heroin and cocaine is simply not acceptable.

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THE head of the country's biggest drug centre is calling for the decriminalisation of the use of all drugs - including heroin.

The director of the Merchant's Quay Project, Tony Geoghegan, said that labelling addicts as criminals reduces their chances of rehabilitation and introduces them to crime circles.

He said he did not want to see drugs legalised, but believed their misuse should no longer be dealt with under the criminal justice system. He said it should be treated as a health and social problem instead.

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Veteran rocker Rod Stewart hopes being honest about his own experiences with drugs will help steer his younger children away from illegal substances.

The Maggie May singer, who openly enjoyed a rock 'n' roll lifestyle during the early days of his career, admits his two oldest children - 24-year-old Sean and Kimberley, 26 - have already developed drug and alcohol problems.

But he hopes he can convince his younger offspring that over indulgence of drink and drugs ruins their lives by drawing on past friends as examples.

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Dark Side Of Ireland's Economic Boom Is The Growth Of High-Octane Gangsterism

Mark Glennon knew what was coming. He slept in a bullet-proof vest and his west Dublin council house was a fortress of bullet-proof glass, CCTV cameras and reinforced doors. To maintain his edge, and his trigger finger, he fuelled himself with cocaine. But last month Glennon, 32, became the latest in a long line of drug dealers with reputations for extreme violence to be shot dead in Ireland's gangland wars. He was gunned down in broad daylight outside his home in Blanchardstown, Ireland's silicon valley, an area of conspicuous wealth.

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I AGREE with teacher and author Julian Cohen on one thing: Ireland’s school drug programmes do not work.

Cormac O'Keeffe (Irish Examiner, September 29) identified the problem, even if I don't agree with him about the solution but that's a debate for another day.

It is good to see that the penny has finally dropped. Too late for many, it is true. The oft-vilified parents who have consistently opposed the Walk Tall drug programme in primary schools and On My Own Two Feet in post-primary schools can hold their heads high at last. They were right.

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EIGHT out of 10 people who use cannabis get their drugs from friends or family, new research shows.

A national survey found only 4% of cannabis users bought or were given the drug by strangers.

"This information contradicts the popular view of the dealer as someone completely unknown to the user," said Dr Des Corrigan, chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD).

The NACD research shows that 78% of people who used cannabis recently were either given the drug by family or friends, bought it from a friend or shared the drug among friends.

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DUBLIN -- Clubbers using ecstasy to keep them dancing through the night may damage their immune systems while those suffering from depression induced by the drug could be more difficult to treat, a neuroscientist said recently.

Developed as an appetite suppressant but now used at raves and night clubs to reduce inhibitions, ecstasy has been linked to psychiatric illnesses but Dr. Thomas Connor of Trinity College Dublin believes it may also put physical health at risk.

"Ecstasy has potent immuno-suppressant qualities which have the ability to increase an individual's susceptibility to disease," Mr. Connor told journalists at the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual festival in Dublin.

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