Pot or politics

[Innocent criminal]

http://www.smh.com.au/world/independent-puts-politics-before-pot-20110325-1ca22.html

 

Independent puts politics before pot

March 26, 2011

 

Luke Flanagan feared his political career could have gone up in smoke.

 

One of Ireland's newest and most flamboyant MPs is giving up smoking cannabis so he can keep his seat in the Dail, the country's parliament.

 

Luke ''Ming'' Flanagan says he is kicking the habit after police called for him to be prosecuted for breaking the law.

 

With his dark, pointy beard and ponytail, Mr Flanagan plays on his resemblance to the tyrant Ming in the Flash Gordon space adventures.

 

The independent MP for Roscommon-South Leitrim had campaigned for cannabis to be legalised before his election to the Dail last month.

 

Now he says he is quitting smoking the drug to protect his wife and children from further media scrutiny, as well as pressure from the police.

 

''I can continue to smoke and face a six-month prison sentence and lose my seat in the Dail, or I can stop,'' he said. ''It is not an ideal situation, but my wife and children are the most important people on the planet to me, and I don't want my kids to witness the garda [police] calling to the house.

 

''However, I will still campaign for legalisation of cannabis.''

 

Mr Flanagan was elected mayor of Roscommon in 2010. He first stood in a general election as a protest candidate against his then landlord, Fianna Fail's Frank Fahey, in 1997 in Galway West.

 

Meanwhile, a fellow independent and equally colourful Dail member backed ''Ming's'' call for cannabis to be legalised.

 

Mick Wallace, MP for Wexford, said alcohol caused far more damage in Ireland than hash. But he said Mr Flanagan's statement that he had cultivated cannabis was ''a direct challenge to the law''.

 

Ten years ago Mr Flanagan sent 500 cannabis joints to Irish politicians as part of his campaign to legalise the drug.