Ireland Not To Move Alone

This article, published on the 30th August 2006 in the Irish Examiner, reports that the Minister of State at the Department of Community, Noel Ahern, said Ireland could not go it alone in the international community in legalizing banned substances. He rejected calls to legalize banned substances, saying that such moves wouldn't work and referred to the drug tourism problems in Holland. Mr Ahern displays the typical cowardice of a politician who dares not stand out from the crowd, but by using the unilateral change argument he is implicitly acknowledging that the other arguments against legal reforms no longer hold water.

It's a pity Ireland's significant and historically unusual economic muscle doesn't translate into greater social leadership.