JACQUI SMITH'S CANDID, COMMON ADMISSION

Once Gordon Brown had announced another review of cannabis
classification yesterday, it was inevitable that the Home Secretary
Jacqui Smith would be asked if she had ever used the drug.

Like thousands of forty-somethings who were at university in the 1970s
and 1980s, she had taken the odd puff.

Does it matter? Smoking dope was illegal but Miss Smith was by no
means alone in breaking the law. It can be argued that she has been
refreshingly candid in admitting to it.

David Cameron, for instance, is alleged to have been disciplined when
he was at Eton for taking cannabis. But he has refused to confirm this
or to comment upon it. "I did lots of things before I came into
politics which I shouldn't have done," he said. "We all did. But
everybody is entitled to a private history."

Miss Smith is not even the first Home Secretary to admit using
cannabis. Charles Clarke said he smoked it as a student in the 1960s,
though he made the admission before taking up the post.

Recently, Vernon Coker, the Home Office drug minister, said he had had
"one or two puffs of marijuana" while a student. But he had not
enjoyed it and decided not to repeat the experience.

The late Mo Mowlam, who was the first Labour minister responsible for
drugs policy, said she used marijuana when younger. So, too, did
Francis Maude, the former Tory chairman, and other
frontbenchers.

Caroline Flint, the Public Health Minister, admitted a few years ago
that she had smoked dope and altogether at least 32 MPs have
acknowledged previous drugs use. In other words, there are a lot of
young people who take cannabis at university and go on to great things.

It was partly to reflect this widespread use that the classification
was lowered a few years ago from class B to C. This meant low level
use and personal possession would not be heavily punished. The
classification has already been reviewed once since cannabis was
downgraded in 2004. Government medical advisers said that while
cannabis was harmful, it was not as dangerous as drugs in Class B.

Miss Smith now risks a charge of hypocrisy if she wants to visit
tougher penalties, introduced since she was a student, on young people
who did what she did.