THE Cannabis Legalisation Party (CLP) is at pains to stress it is not a single-issue party. The Registrar of Political Parties denies it is a party at all, single-issue or otherwise.
He has refused to register it and the electorates of Dun Laoghaire and Cork South Central will search in vain for "CLP" on their ballot papers.
Introducing its manifesto yesterday, the CLP expressed zero tolerance of all the main parties, with particular reference to Fianna Fail's spokesman on justice, Mr John O'Donoghue.
Its candidate in Dun Laoghaire, a journalist, Mr Olaf Tyaransen, said: "John, we don't know if you smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, or if you ever did in the past, but would you not try some cannabis some time, just to see what it is like?"
Among the beneficial properties of cannabis, the CLP cites its value in the treatment of cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. The group says it has been illegal only in the past 50 years.
The cause of crime in Ireland is not drugs but the prohibition of drugs, the CLP said. It was absurd to drive such a beneficial substance underground.