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"Jolly nice" - 5 Famous UK Politicians Who Admit to Cannabis...
Other | Friday 3rd October 2014 | Osh
Just for the fun of it - and to pour further ridicule on the continuing illegal status of cannabis in this fine country of ours- here are five of the highest-profile UK politicians that have publicly admitted to having used cannabis at one time or another...
Hazel Blears
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2007 to 2009 under Gordon Brown's Labor government. Has admitted to having used cannabis as a teenager. In 2003 the MP launched an anti-drugs campaign on the one hand, while on the other admitted that drugs were "pleasurable".
Alistair Darling
Yes, the slightly creepy one with the movie villain eyes, often left looking incompetent by Jeremy Paxman. Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010 and Secretary for Trade and Industry in 2006/7. What, we wonder, is in that briefcase that he's so smug about?
Harriet Harman
Currently our Shadow Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, while previously Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Considered the 14th most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 in 2013. The picture below, we believe, catches Harman in the act of sharing her special brownies with future Prime Minister Ed Milliband; by the looks of it Ed was caught unawares.
Jacqui Smith
The Labour Home Secretary from 2007 to 2009 and one of the higher profile politicians to have been caught up in the expenses scandal (in Smith's case this included claiming expenses for two porno films her husband had enjoyed). She admitted to having tried cannabis while at Oxford in the 1980s. "I did break the law. I was wrong... drugs are wrong," she said, according to a 2007 report on the BBC News website.
What's more remarkable is that Smith's admission was made public only the day after Gordon Brown had appointed her head of a government review of the UK Drugs strategy. In 2008, and against the recommendations of the scientific advisers involved, she reversed the decision the government had made in 2004 to downgrade cannabis to class C. She advocated instead reinforcing its class B status, which came took effect in January 2009.
Boris Johnson
And our very own floppy-haired, dictionary-swallowing Mayor of London (and former Shadow Minister for Higher Education), Boris. To many of us, that won't come as any real surprise. It would in fact come as no real surprise to learn he's made whole speeches under the influence. Boris has previously admitted to "quite a few spliffs", describing the experience as "jolly nice".
The fact that some of the highest-profile politicians in our country have admitted to using cannabis at some point or other in their lives highlights the folly of cannabis law in this country; a country where numerous politicians who have themselves used cannabis nevertheless continue to implicitly (and in Jaqcui Smith's case explicitly) support its ongoing criminalisation.
The real list is longer than five, by the way. And elsewhere, major league political figures who've admitted to the 'crime' include Mo Mowlam, Charles Clarke, former US President and saxophone player Bill Clinton and current US Prez and charisma-master Barak Obama.
