HOME OFFICE MINISTER TRIED CANNABIS

Home Office minister Hazel Blears has admitted experimenting once with
cannabis.

A week after it emerged the incoming head of the Crown Prosecution Service
was once convicted of possessing the drug, the junior minister said she
tried cannabis about 25 years ago.

"I literally had cannabis once from somebody that I knew and I literally
never did it again because basically it didn't work. It had no effect on
me," she said.

Ms Blears, MP for Salford, said she never touched cannabis again and was
"never really associated with people who took drugs".

She said it should not be regarded as a "life-or-death issue" or it would
"exclude some very good people from politics".

And she maintained her hardline stance on drugs, adding: "There are better
things to do with your life."

Ms Blears said she presumed she did not inhale the drug and had "no idea
what you were supposed to do with it".

The MP was involved in controversy in May when, as health minister, she
launched an anti-drugs campaign while admitting drugs were "pleasurable".

She was defending an advertisement that highlights the benefits of taking
ecstasy before it encourages viewers to find out about possible side-effects.

Ms Blears said the campaign was trying to tap into young people's own
experiences and said: "In many cases people do take drugs because it's a
pleasurable thing to do. This points out that there are other impacts."