DAY ADMITS HE SMOKED MARIJUANA - AND 'I DID INHALE'

WOODSTOCK, Ont. - Canadian Alliance leadership hopeful Stockwell Day did
more than look like a long-haired hippie with bell-bottom jeans 30 years ago.

The law-and-order advocate conceded yesterday that he also had smoked
marijuana. He gave no hint if there were any brushes with the law.

"Yes, I have done marijuana. And I did inhale," Mr. Day, 49, confessed
without hesitation.

Asked if young Canadians should experiment and break the law like he did,
he responded: "Oh, I think it's best left alone."

The religiously evangelical politician made the admission after a
law-and-order pitch to 140 people at a chamber of commerce lunch during
which he pledged to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system.

Mr. Day thought most people will forgive those long-ago sins committed when
he was in high school and university and blowing dope like most of his
peers. "I think they'll see it in that context."

The former Alberta treasurer joins other conservative leaders Kim Campbell,
Ralph Klein and Jean Charest in admitting to having tried marijuana.

U.S. President Bill Clinton was evasive when he was asked, saying he
smoked, but didn't inhale. Prime Minister Jean Chretien claims to have
never expanded his consciousness with a mind-bending experience.

More upright now than when he wore his long, blond hair in a pony tail, Mr.
Day expressed frustration that today's criminals aren't treated severely
enough. He advocated felons serving their full terms and automatic
consecutive sentences instead of the current system of concurrent sentences.

But he also indicated some of the spirit of the Woodstock generation hadn't
entirely left his heart since joining politics. He recalled that as a youth
counsellor, he and his wife Val would sit up at night with heroin addicts
going through withdrawal. "The federal government should be more concerned
about the life sentences imposed on those kids through that addiction than
the person who was responsible for getting them there."

Delegates attending last January's Alliance policy conference voted against
a proposal to decriminalize marijuana. Mr. Day didn't say yesterday how he
had voted at the convention.