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British ministers admit to cannabis use as youths

Seven British Cabinet ministers have reportedly confessed they smoked cannabis at university, as one after another cleared the air on their student past in an extraordinary procession on Thursday.

The day started with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith admitting she smoked cannabis at university -- less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced she would be tasked with toughening up the law on the illegal drug.

But then a clutch of other ministers put their hands up and confessed they did it too, bringing the tally to seven Cabinet ministers and two junior ministers who have owned up.

The Labour Party was meant to be busy defending two seats in by-elections as Brown faced his first electoral test as prime minister, but instead senior party figures were admitting their past transgressions in hazy student haunts.

"The Cabinet is going to pot!" the front page of London's Evening Standard screamed.

The 44-year-old revealed she smoked cannabis on a handful of occasions while at Oxford University -- but has not used it or any other drugs since.

"I think it was wrong that I smoked it when I did. I have not done for 25 years," she said, adding that she had "not particularly" enjoyed it.

"I did break the law. I was wrong ... drugs are wrong," she said.

Then one of her team, Home Office Minister Tony McNulty, swiftly made a similar confession.

"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," he told reporters.

Brown's spokesman said of his boss: "He has not taken illegal drugs."

"The prime minister thinks this is a matter for individual ministers to decide how to answer these questions," he said.

So the Evening Standard began asking.

Finance Minister Alastair Darling said he smoked cannabis "occasionally in my youth."

His deputy at the Treasury, Chief Secretary Andy Burnham admitted: "Once or twice at university and never since."

A spokeswoman for Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly, a devout Catholic, said she had smoked cannabis "in her youth."

"She realized it was foolish and gave up," the spokeswoman said.

Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton's spokesman said: "He smoked cannabis when he was at university over 30 years ago. He regrets doing it now having seen the damage that cannabis can cause among some of the young people in his constituency."

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Housing Minister Yvette Cooper have long since owned up, as has Vernon Coaker -- the drugs minister.

Defence Secretary Des Browne and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said "no comment."
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