What a difference 18 years and a change of Minister makes! When Mary Harney made her 1997 Late Late Show appearance talking drugs alongside Howard Marks, she said, “I don’t think he’s nice, he’s Mr. Evil.”
The current Minister with responsibility for Drug Strategy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin was altogether more benevolent towards the convicted cannabis smuggler yesterday, tweeting “Great chatting with @OfficialMrNice at #metrofestival.”
They were both participating in separate spoken word events at Dublin’s new urban festival, which proved to be a massive success.
Talking to Hot Press, Howard, who was in top form despite being diagnosed with inoperable bowel cancer, said he was extremely impressed with the Minister’s plans to introduce supervised injecting rooms into Ireland and wanting to adopt a Portuguese-style “treat not punish” decriminalisation model here.
This is the photo which accompanied his tweet, with Howard sat down on the left and our man Olaf Tyaransen next to the Minister.