ABBOTT: I TRIED MARIJUANA - BUT DIDN'T INHALE

The Health Minister, Tony Abbott, says he smoked marijuana as a
student but that, like former US president Bill Clinton, he did not
inhale.

Mr Abbott's revelation comes a day after the Labor leader, Mark
Latham, told reporters he had used cannabis in his youth.

Mr Abbott told Channel Seven this morning: "I had a puff on a
marijuana cigarette when I was a student."

But unlike Mr Latham, who says he inhaled the cigarette smoke, Mr
Abbott said he did not inhale.

"I don't inhale normal cigarettes let alone illegal cigarettes ... I'm
afraid in this matter Bill Clinton and I have something in common."

In a 1992 interview with The New York Times, Mr Clinton admitted to
having tried marijuana.

"When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two,
and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale," he told the newspaper.