A DISMISSIVE SNIFF

Andre Boisclair says he was never actually a cocaine addict while
serving in the Quebec cabinet. He just used the stuff. Well, that's
re-assuring.

Mr. Boisclair continues to miss the point about his drug use. Cocaine
is an illegal drug and a dangerous one. That he broke the law while
serving as a senior lawmaker is no small matter. It casts doubt on
his judgment and his fitness to become premier, the post he is
seeking by campaigning to lead the Parti Quebecois.

Yet he continues to brush off questions about his cocaine use,
flaring up at reporters who dare ask him about it. When they asked
Wednesday whom he bought his cocaine from, he snapped, "How does it
serve the public interest for me to tell you that? I never bought
any. Was the person that gave Mr. [Jean] Charest marijuana in contact
with organized crime? . . . Did Mr. Charest, who admitted smoking
pot, say where he bought it? Come on." Then he stalked out of the
news conference.

Well, Premier Charest did admit to smoking pot, but not when he was a
cabinet minister. Admitting that you smoked a joint or two in your
youth, as U.S. president Bill Clinton, the famous non-inhaler, once
did, is quite different from admitting you used cocaine while in public office.

Mr. Boisclair insists the drug never left him unbalanced. Reassuring?
Not at all.