HAGUE TO FORGIVE DRUG 'EXPERIMENTS'

William Hague said yesterday that he would forgive any Tory MP who
revealed themselves as a past user of cannabis - at the same time as
he pledged to bring down the full force of the law on soft-drug users.

The Tory leader said that although none of his frontbench team had yet
admitted smoking cannabis, it was possible that a senior colleague
might make an admission in future. "It will arise in other cases," he
said.

However, past misdeeds need not prevent them fighting the anti-drugs
cause as long as they did so with "enthusiasm and belief". His
announcement came as he unveiled the party's new, tougher, policy on
drugs under which being caught in possession of even soft drugs within
400 metres of a school should be considered an "aggravating factor" in
sentencing, pointing to a jail sentence.