CANNABIS REMAINS A SMOKING GUN FOR TORIES

THE Tory drugs row rumbled on today as high-profile members of the
party were accused of plotting to undermine Ann Widdecombe by
confessing they had smoked cannabis.

Seven members of the Shadow Cabinet revealed they had taken the drug
as students just days after the launch of the party's new hardline
policy on drugs.

The admissions, by Conservatives including shadow foreign secretary
Francis Maude and leader in the Lords Lord Strathclyde, threw the
Tories into disarray.

They were being widely interpreted as an attempt by the more socially
liberal wing of the party to undermine shadow home secretary Miss
Widdecombe, who launched the "zero tolerance" policy at conference
last week.

Conservative Chief Whip James Arbuthnot declined to confirm or deny
reports that he had been behind a co-ordinated 'outing' of Shadow
Cabinet members as former cannabis-smokers.

A report in today's issue of The Times suggests that Mr Arbuthnot
contacted each of the seven, telling them to respond "honestly" to the
questions of the Mail on Sunday.

Asked by PA News whether he had any comment on the report, Mr
Arbuthnot said simply "No".

Asked whether he could deny it, he made no response.

There were suggestions that the seven were angry she unveiled her
strategy - featuring minimum pounds 100 fines for the possession of
even the smallest amount of cannabis - without discussing it fully
with Shadow Cabinet colleagues.

Shadow culture secretary Peter Ainsworth, who admitted taking cannabis
and amyl nitrate while a student at Oxford, did not hide his annoyance
at the lack of consultation.

He told the BBC: "The policy needs to be looked at again and it needs
to be discussed, and that would be a help, frankly, when making policy.

"The fact is that, in my opinion, nobody is going to die from cannabis
and it is unrealistic to expect people not to come across it. I came
across it.

"That is worlds apart from the whole question of serious drugs,
persistent drug use, drug-dealing, selling drugs to children and so
on, where we take a very, very hard line, and I think rightly so."

Miss Widdecombe said her colleagues' admissions did not alter her
position.

"I am not interested in the past. I am only interested in the measures
we need for the future," she said.

Meanwhile Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy yesterday became the
first leader of a mainstream party to say he favoured the
decriminalisation of cannabis.

Mr Kennedy told ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby that he did not regard the
Shadow Cabinet members or other recreational users of cannabis as criminals.