MINISTERS FACE DRUGS 'OUTING' BLACKMAIL

THE Government has been warned that it faces fresh embarrassment over its
tough stance against drugs, with some militant campaigners threatening to
expose MPs and ministers who have smoked cannabis.

The warning, following the arrest of a senior Cabinet minister's son for
supplying cannabis, was last night fuelled by the disclosure that a Labour
MP, Charles Clarke, who was Neil Kinnock's chief of staff in the 1992
election, has become the first senior party figure to admit in public that
he has taken drugs.

Paul Flynn, the Leftwing MP for Newport West, said: "The problem of drugs
is not confined to a small group of wicked people: the Government's own
figures show many people in this society have taken drugs and you can
extrapolate from those statistics that some MPs may have taken them as well.

"This is like John Major's Back to Basics campaign. After coaxing a few
cheap claps out of an audience, you find someone is up to their necks in it
and you are left with something of a credibility problem. The moral high
ground is a dangerous place to be because you are in danger of getting
toppled off."

Jack Girling, the chairman of Campaign to Legalise Cannabis, said
extremists in his organisation wanted to run an outing exercise similar to
that attempted recently by Gay Rights members. "We know there are a number
of Labour MPs and officials who have smoked cannabis," he said. "Every day
you hear reports about some politician or somebody who has done it. There
will be more people exposed on this and we have discussed an outing
campaign some of our members still want to do it but at the moment we
feel it would be counterproductive; we want them to come forward of their
own accord."

Charles Clarke, who won the seat of Norwich South on May 1, said: "I was
asked at an election hustings if I had ever taken drugs and I replied I had
taken it a couple of times in my late teens. I think it is important to
tell the truth." He refused to go into further detail, but stressed: "I
have never bought or traded in them. I am opposed to legalisation of
cannabis and would advise my own children never to try drugs."

Mr Clarke is believed to be the first Labour MP to confess that he has
smoked cannabis. MPs such as Mr Flynn and Tony Banks, who have campaigned
for legalisation, have always denied taking drugs themselves.

Last night ministers and Labour MPs reiterated that they saw no reason for
the resignation of the Cabinet minister whose son was arrested, despite the
Government's uncompromising opposition to drugs, and statements in
opposition that offenders be "named and shamed".

So far the names of both the minister and his son have been protected
because of laws banning the identification of under18s in court
proceedings. However, police are understood to be conducting a speedy
inquiry to set the case on a "fast track" through the criminal justice
system, despite pleas by the minister that the youth should be treated in
the same way as anyone else.