Italian MPs coke and dope shame
Author: Jonty Skrufff
Friday, October 13, 2006
Reality TV show Le Lene (the Hyenas) told the MPs they were interviewing them for a pre-budget programme and used a make-up artist to swab their brows to obtain a sample of their perspiration which was then tested for marijuana and cocaine. 12 later came out as positive for dope and four for coke, indicating usage within the last 36 hours. Despite broadcasters pulling the show from schedules, and none of the 16 drug users yet being named, the revelations provoked outrage throughout Italy from both the public and various untainted politicians.
"It's a bit depressing," Green party MP Tana de Zulueta said in an interview. "It will confirm a public perception that we're a bunch of overpaid, depraved, good for nothings.” (New Zealand Herald)
Green party leader and Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio agreed, complaining “absurd laws have been passed which punish kids for smoking a joint then we find that among the highest political offices people are taking too much cocaine,” while Alessandra Mussolini (granddaughter of Italian dictator Benito) criticised the cancellation.
"The censoring of a journalistic inquiry is a grave episode which I will take to the European Parliament,” she stormed. “It’s an absolute disgrace.”
Ironically, reporters from German current affairs TV show AKTE 05 broadcast their own expose of drug use at the European parliament last year, when they secretly tested for evidence of cocaine use in washrooms at the parliament’s headquarters. The results showed traces of cocaine at almost all 46 locations, some of which were substantial, drug expert Professor Fritz Sorgel told the programme.
“This proves substantial amounts of cocaine are being used in the European parliament buildings,” he said. “The drugs did not fly through the window and were not found in all areas of the building.” (Guardian)
The story could refocus attention on persistent stories accusing George Bush of using cocaine both in Kitty Kelly’s revelatory biography The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty and the publication last year of secret tapes released by his father’s former adviser Doug Wead in which the US president even boasted of concealing his delinquent past.
"That's part of my schtick, which is, look, we have all made mistakes,” Bush told Weade, according to transcripts published in the New York Times.
"What you need to say time and time again is not talk about the details of your transgressions but talk about what I have learned. I've sinned and I've learned. I am just not going to answer those questions,” the President explained.
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