Irish riding that plane high on cocaine

Independent:

The airline pilot, the nun, and the government minister. Everybody in Ireland wants to know who they are. Then there's the teacher, the nurse, the lawyer and the top doctors. All are said to admit, candidly but anonymously, that they snort cocaine. The pilot, in fact, says he takes it in the cockpit.

Cocaine use in the Irish Republic is widespread and expanding. The monied new Ireland, in other words, has a habit. Drug seizures shot up by a factor of 17 last year in the Irish Republic. One consignment intercepted in Co Cork containing 60 bales of cocaine worth a total of £80m.

But who exactly were these high-powered individuals who admitted so frankly to taking the drug? Which government minister could be so audacious as to confess to a journalist in Buswell's, a hotel right across from the Dail – the Irish Parliament – that he's a regular user? And he was quite willing to be recorded. He airily admitted: "Yes I do take drugs – just coke though – regularly enough. I'm certainly not the only one around here that does.

"The hypocrisy that surrounds it really galls me. We all know how widespread it is, in bars, offices – and over there," he added, motioning across to the Dail.

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The claims were aired in High Society, a two-part television documentary, shown on RTE, the Irish state broadcaster associated with journalistic probity and high standards. Another RTE investigation, for example, confirmed the widespread use of cocaine by methodically taking swabs in nearly 300 lavatories in pubs, clubs and workplaces. More than 90 per cent were positive.

Drug abuse makes the newspapers almost every day. Last month Katy French, one of Dublin's leading fashion models, died, apparently after taking cocaine at her 24th birthday party. A Dublin coroner called the drug, "by far the biggest killer", saying that last year he had held inquests into 26 deaths which proved cocaine-related.

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The evidence presented is disputed to some extent, but it still suggest a serious problem in Ireland that needs to be addressed. I have heard it said that cocaine is Gods way of telling you that you have too much money. Ireland's new wealth deserves a better investment than sticking up their nose.