ANGER OVER TELEVISION DEBATE ON SOFT DRUGS

I have been contacted by many parents who are bitterly hurt and angry
at John Bowman's irresponsible promotion of the drug culture during
RTE's Questions and Answers programme on January 17.

Some of the parents who contacted me have lost children to drugs and
their pain was palpable, even over the phone. Others are probably
luckier in that their children are still alive but in a living hell
because some other idiots trivialise the effects of drugs in similar
fashion to what Mr Bowman and his guests did in that programme.

Parents around the country are aware of the push to legalise cannabis
and other so called harmless soft drugs. And parent power is growing.
They know from bitter experience that there is no such thing as a
harmless drug, soft or hard. Apart from the personal damage which is
done to the users and their families, there is also the fact that
garda resources are being stretched in the battle against these soft
drugs which, according to Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne, are a key
factor in Ireland's current crime problem.

On behalf of the parents who have tragically lost children to drugs
and those who are still suffering from the fallout, I now seek an
apology from RTE's John Bowman and the four guests who, while strident
in their demands for justice for the victims of child abuse in the
past, failed miserably to condemn this modern diabolical form of child
abuse.

Nora Bennis, Party leader, Christian Democrats The National Party, 16
Revington Park, North Circular Road, Limerick.