Subj: No smoke without fire?  Sometimes



Source: Daily Telegraph, UK



Date: Wednesday, January 19 2000





No smoke without fire?  Sometimes



MO MOWLAM's bracing confession that she may, at one time or another, have

taken a drag on a jazz cigarette brought praise from the Home Secretary,

Jack Straw, who declared: "One of her great strengths is her integrity and,

if people have smoked cannabis in the past, it's far better to say they

have rather than trying to twist in the wind."



Jack Straw knows the importance of getting the record straight.  While

guest on 'Have I got news for you', celebrity chef Charisma Dickson Wright

- a Gray's Inn contemporary of Straw - said mischievously, "He claims never

to have touched 'wacky baccy' - obviously my memory has been affected by

all the drink.



Afterwards a newspaper was foolish enough to construe her remarks as a

claim that the Home Secretary might once have tried cannabis.  Lawyers for

Jack Straw politely, but firmly, corrected its inference within 24 hours.