Pubdate: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 Source: Scotsman (UK) Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 2000 Contact: http://www.scotsman.com/ Forum: http://www.scotsman.com/ Author: Gary Duncan MO MOWLAM ADMITS SHE SMOKED CANNABIS MO MOWLAM, the minister in charge of the government's anti-drugs strategy, admitted yesterday that she had smoked cannabis while a student. The disclosure came after Claudia Beyer, a former colleague of Dr Mowlam at Iowa State University in the 1970s, said she had seen her with a cannabis cigarette at a party. Dr Mowlam's admission, and the muted reaction it drew from all sides of the political spectrum, will raise pressure onthe government to consider a rethink of the law on "soft" drugs. Dr Mowlam, appearing on Sky News's Sunday with Adam Boulton, was pressed over reports that Conservatives were calling on her to come clean over past involvement with drugs. In a reply in which she referred to Bill Clinton's notorious response to similar questioning, the Cabinet Office minister said: "I haven't made any secret of being a child of the Sixties, never have. I wasn't part of the drugs culture, but I have said in previous interviews this isn't a new news story. "I said I tried marijuana, didn't like it particularly and unlike President Clinton I did inhale. But it wasn't part of my life then and that's what happened." She did not believe this made her unfit to continue in her role spearheading the Government's fight against drugs, but added that the decision lay with the Prime Minister. Asked if she considered whether her "illegal" act meant she should give up her Cabinet seat, Dr Mowlam said: "No, because if it did Tony Blair would decide and I wouldn't stay. Butit happened in America, it [cannabis] was something that many people experimented with. If I had bought it, sold it, used it frequently, it might have done - but I didn't." She recognised there would now be calls for her to step down from her government role, but pledged to continue alongside the so-called drugs tsar, Keith Hellawell. "The papers will be full tomorrow with claims that I am unfit to look after the drugs policy. I will continue to fight hard against the drugs that can kill people, like heroin and cocaine. "I will continue to say to young people, as I have done for the last two months in the job, that taking drugs is not within the law and is not a credible thing to do in your life." Ministers were backed by opposition parties and leading anti-drugs campaigners in rejecting suggestions that Dr Mowlam might have to resign or be sacked after her confession that she had tried the drug when she was at university. An impending report from a Police Federation committee partly funded by the Home Office, chaired by Lady Runciman and including two chief constables, is expected to put the government on the spot over the issue next month by recommending that cannabis use should be decriminalised. Coupled with Dr Mowlam's declaration, the report is likely to create further difficulties for Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, who has preferred to maintain a hard line on drugs. Yesterday, however, Mr Straw was at the forefront of politicians commending his colleague for her honesty and brushing aside any possibility of her leaving office as a result. Mr Straw told ITV's Dimbleby programme: "Good for Mo in making this clear. One of her very great strengths is her integrity and, if people have smoked cannabis in the past, far better to say they have rather than trying to twist in the wind." In an indication of the demands likely to face the Home Secretary and the Cabinet, Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, yesterday wrote to Tony Blair calling for a cross-party investigation of the law on drugs. Mr Kennedy said he hoped that the Runciman report along with Dr Mowlam's statement "might encourage politicians to enter into more mature and open debate on this subject". For the Conservatives, Andrew Lansley, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: "I appreciate that it is important for Mo Mowlam to answer questions about her past. But it remains true that the important thing is not her past experience but that she now continues - - with us - to stress to young people in particular the dangers of experimentation with and use of drugs." Dr Mowlam, who said that she had thought regular users of cannabis "boring" in the 1960s, also dismissed suggestions that she planned to dismiss Mr Hellawell, the anti-drugs co-ordinator. Mr Hellawell had earlier called for an end to the "witch-hunt" of politicians accused of trying soft drugs before they entered public life. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea