MINISTERS ADMIT USING CANNABIS

A string of Government ministers have followed Home Secretary Jacqui
Smith in admitting they used cannabis in their youth.

A total of seven Cabinet ministers, including Chancellor of the
Exchequer Alistair Darling, confirmed they used the illegal drug as
students. And two more ministers at the Home Office also said they
tried it at university.

The admissions came after Prime Minister Gordon Brown's announcement
on Wednesday of a review of the classification of cannabis, which may
reverse the 2004 decision to downgrade it from a class B drug to the
less serious class C.

Mr Brown's spokesman said the Prime Minister - who has denied ever
using illicit substances - was "quite relaxed" about his Cabinet
colleagues' admissions of past indiscretions.

Ms Smith, who will have to decide whether to reverse her predecessor
David Blunkett's decision on declassifying cannabis, made her
admission in an interview on GMTV.

Shortly afterwards policing, security and community safety Minister
Tony McNulty told BBC News 24: "At university I encountered it, I
smoked it once or twice, and I don't think many people who were at
university at the time didn't at least encounter it."

And the Home Office later confirmed another minister Vernon Coaker,
who has responsibility for drugs policy, had also taken cannabis in
the past.

Mr Darling said he had tried the drug "occasionally in my youth". His
deputy at the Treasury, Chief Secretary Andy Burnham said he had used
it "once or twice at university and never since".

Spokespeople for Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly and Business Secretary
John Hutton also confirmed they were former cannabis users.

The Conservative Party said it had nothing new to say about whether
any of the shadow cabinet had used illicit substances. Tory leader
David Cameron has refused to confirm or deny whether he has taken drugs.