In the US, even Barack Obama wants an open discussion on drugs. In Ireland that debate is set to stagnate.
If you were picking a man to lead the cause of cannabis legalisation you probably wouldn’t pick Luke “Ming” Flanagan. Why? Because he looks exactly like the kind of guy you’d expect to promote the cause of cannabis legalisation.
That’s not to say he’s bad at it. In many respects he’s exceptionally good. He has stuck with his principles from the earliest days, and he tried to change the system from within when, in November, he tabled a Private Members’ Bill calling for the legalisation of the drug. It was defeated by 111 votes to eight, so a moral victory was about all he was ever going to get, but it did trigger a half-decent Dáil debate on the subject.
And he’s done this while being the country’s most famous dope smoker, when the stereotype would suggest he could hardly get through a Dáil address without going blank every so often and asking what it was he was just talking about.
So everyone knows where he comes from on this subject. It’s there in the reputation,the nickname, the beard. He typifies much of the idea of the dope smoker (the TD element excepted, naturally). And the debate, such at is in Ireland, is already stymied by both Government parties’ cliche-heavy reluctance to countenance an honest discussion.
Source: Shane Hegarty, Irish Times, 26/02/2014
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