I SMOKED POT AND IT DID ME NO HARM SAYS TORY

A Tory MP admitted yesterday that he had smoked cannabis as a young man and
claimed it had done him no harm.

David Prior, 43, whose father James served as a Cabinet Minister came out
publicly after a survey indicated that one in five of the new intake of MPs
had used drugs.

The same poll for a TV program showed 65% of new MPs were in favour of a
Royal Commission to look into legalising cannabis. Mr Prior said: "One of
the problems about having a rational discussion about drugs is that a lot
of people have got so many preconceptions. Often they are wrong. A huge
number of people are exposed to drugs who are completely conventional, like
myself."

But his views contrasted sharpely with Jack Straw who has been opposed to
drugs since his student days.

Although many MPs in his own party privately believe that cannabis should
be decriminalised, The Home Secretary said he had not seen "any good
reason" for agreeing with them.

"If we decriminalise (soft) drugs, there would be a huge, massive increase
in consumption", he said.

Mr Straw added: "Governments set up Royal Commissions when they are
uncertain what to do about something."

"We are not uncertain about this."

Mr Prior, the MP for North Norfolk, admitted that he smoked cannabis for a
few years during his early twenties.

Asked why he had owned up, he told Radio 4's The World this Weekend: "I
could not honestly live with myself talking about drugs if I did not admit
to people that I had taken them myself."

Mr Prior said he did not know enough about the medical effects to say
whether cannabis should be legalised.