Anti-drug campaigners call for minister's resignation

Anti-drug campaigners are calling for Noel Ahern, the Junior Minister with responsibility for Ireland's drugs strategy, to be replaced.

The call comes ahead of the publication of a study that reportedly found that 300,000 young Irish people are regular users of cannabis.

Reports this morning said the study, commissioned by the Oireachtas Committee on Community, Rural and Gaeltacht affairs, had also found that some 28,000 people are dependent on the drug.

Grainne Kenny of Europe Against Drugs said today that she was horrified and stunned to hear the figures and Noel Ahern should be replaced as a result.

"We had great hopes for him when he was appointed," she said, "If he was in industry, he would be fired, because this is a total failure."