Italian MPs to be offered drugs tests to prove parliament is not an 'opium smoking den'

Drugs tests are to be offered to all Italian MPs and senators from tomorrow in a bid to prove their parliament is not an 'opium smoking den'. The testing of Italy's serving politicians is not obligatory and has been promoted by Carlo Giovanardi, a senator with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party.

The initiative comes just two weeks after the regional governor of Lazio, married father-of-three Piero Marrazzo, was forced to stand down after being caught up in a scandal involving transsexual prostitutes.

Senator Giovanardi has insisted that the test is voluntary but said he had had dozens of requests from parliamentary colleagues to take part, adding: 'I will not name names, it is up to them to say who they are.'



Tests will be carried out on urine, which can reveal if drugs have been taken in the previous 72 hours, and hair follicles, which can detect abuse from six months ago.

Italian politicians have a long history of brushes with drugs. In 2003 the former prime minister Emilio Colombo admitted that he had purchased cocaine after his drug dealer was arrested but said it was for 'therapeutic purposes'. Two years later, during a debate on Italy's drug law, current deputy prime minister Gianfranco Fini admitted having smoked a joint once while he was on holiday in Jamaica.

His colleague Pierferdinando Casini also said he had tried the drug, prompting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to joke, 'While those two were taking drugs, I was working.' Then two years ago, another centre-right Roman Catholic MP, Cosimo Mele, was also forced to step down after being caught with a prostitute and cocaine in a luxury Rome hotel bedroom.