Is cannabis a "gateway" to harder drugs - as both the Garda Siochana and RTE stated this weekend when commenting on the latest haul of the drug?
No, says Luke Flanagan, the Galway campaigner for legalisation of the substance. There is no evidence of an automatic link, he says, as he pledges to continue his work.
Flanagan, a.k.a. Ming the Merciless, missed an opportunity to go to jail for the cause when his father paid the fine imposed on him for possession last year. It is not often that a person turns up voluntarily at a Garda station in the hope that he will be arrested and sent to prison.
But such was the case at Mill Street in Galway last Friday morning, when the four-month deadline for fine payment expired, and Ming chose to serve the 15 days in prison as a matter of principle.
The campaigner has become a hugely vocal advocate for the legalisation of cannabis since polling 548 votes in Galway West in the general election last June. Proof that he practised what he preached was provided in August, when members of the Garda Drugs Unit in Galway caught him in possession of small quantities of the drug. He began a publicity blitz of the city over a month ago, informing the public of his intention to go to jail rather than pay the fine. He denied that he was polluting the environment by pasting up hundreds of pro-cannabis posters. "I am environmentally friendly, I take the posters down myself every 10 days or so and I don't drive a car. "
Ming claims that there is not enough room in Irish prisons for the thousands of people who continue to use cannabis on a regular basis. A native of Castlerea, Co Roscommon, he claims to have been given special treatment by gardai because of his outspoken views. In one instance, he says he was strip-searched after smoking herbal cigarettes in a pub in his home town. Surprised and disappointed at last week's events, he aims to continue to educate the people of Galway, and says it will not stop him from smoking cannabis. "I am continuing to urge a change in the law," he says.
Ming's Choice Party also campaigns on other issues, such as persecution by private landlords and victimisation of those who are on Social Welfare. He has taken a year off college and he intends to run in several marathons, and in the European and local elections next year. The prospect of taking on Dana in Connacht/Ulster really appeals to him.