Cannabis use should not concern the State
In an echo of Fine Gael’s Blueshirt past, Mr McKiernan, a member of the party’s national executive, called for drug users to be put to work to repay their apparent debt to society.
Mr McDowell says there is no such thing as private drug use, a view Mr McKiernan seems to share.
This is incorrect. Cannabis is actually a plant. Its cultivation does not require a lab, a brewery or the involvement of crime gangs.
The laws against private cannabis use are a gross invasion of a citizen’s right to privacy and serve to undermine respect for the law, particularly among young people, many of whom can see through the ignorant piety of politicians or political activists like Mr McKiernan, and who recognise that the two most harmful drugs in society, alcohol and tobacco, are tolerated by these same people.
It is instructive to note that, amid the contrived cannabis controversy, serious crime figures rose alarmingly last year. Mr McDowell ought to spend less time worrying about the private lives of citizens and instead direct his energies towards tackling real crime.
The law should only govern our behaviour towards others, and what we do to ourselves in our own homes should not concern the State, the minister, or Fine Gael.
Brendan Hogan
Cord Road
Drogheda
Co Louth
