Minister admits to ‘sampling’ pot
Caroline Flint, the minister with the brief of combating hard drugs such as cocaine and heroine, in the new job for less than two weeks, admitted yesterday to “sampling” cannabis as a young woman.
Although cannabis is expected to be downgraded from a Class B to Class C drug next year, the confession does cause some embarrassment for the Government.
The MP for Don Valley, south Yorkshire, told BBC radio she tried the drug once but neither liked the experience nor the legal ramifications.
Its illegal status ‘acted as a brake,’ she reportedly said.
BBC interviewer Danny Shaw said: “I got the impression she didn’t like it. She didn’t like the fact that other people smoked it all the time. She said she was put off because it was against the law. She said that being illegal acted as a brake on her taking any more of it.”
But Home Secretary David Blunkett abides with the decision to hand her the new brief. The Home Office expressed “full confidence” in her abilities.
Ms Flint will also focus on how to tackle international and European crime issues.
Ms Flint was Parliamentary Private Secretary to both John Reid and Peter Hain.
According to government estimates, nearly half of Britons under the age of 30 have tried marijuana.
The news came on the day when Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith launched his new “tough but tender” drugs policy. If elected a Tory government would secure a drug rehabilitation place for every young addict in the UK.
Mr Duncan Smith, in a speech in Leeds, said rehabilitation places would be increased from less than 2,000 at present to more than 20,000.
The Tory leader, ahead of the speech, said his plans formed “the toughest drug policy by a single party leader” that he could remember.
