FIRST GOVERNMENT MINISTER ADMITS TO SMOKING CANNABIS

PUBLIC health minister Yvette Cooper tonight broke Government ranks and
became the first serving minister to admit smoking cannabis since DShadow
Home Secretary Ann Widdicombe ignited debate over legalisation with her
hard-line zero tolerance policy.

The Conservatives were forced to back-peddle over the proposals unveiled
last week in their party conference, after a string of Tory front benchers
admitted they had tried the drug in their youth.

Surveys of Cabinet Ministers brought many "no comments" from their opposite
numbers with only those who had previously admitted taking cannabis
confirming they had experimented with it.

But last night, Ms Cooper, married to Chancellor Gordon Brown's chief
economic advisor Ed Balls, admitted to taking the drug as did former
chancellor Norman Lamont.

Home secretary Jack straw and Cabinet colleagues have insisted there will
be no moves to legalising the drug.

And appearing on BBC radio 4's Any Questions? programme Ms Cooper said the
confession should not effect her competence in office. "In terms of
people doing thinks in their youth that should be consistent with public
policy judgments they make later on, nobody would ever guarantee that."

She insisted there had been no 'party line' not to answer questions about
previous drug use and asked by presenter Nick Clarke if she wanted to
answer the question she said: "I will give you a straight answer."