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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Smoking Out Politicians Who Used Dope David Charter and Andrew Pierce The Times Friday 23 Jan 2004 AN old flame came to Michael Howard's rescue last night after he spent the day ducking the question that dogs every modern political leader: Did you smoke dope? Celia Haddon, an author who dated Mr Howard between 1962 and 1963 when he was President of the Union, said that cannabis had not even arrived at Cambridge university by then. Ms Haddon said: 'There was a world of difference between 1962 and 1965 which heralded the arrival of flower power when cannabis became all the rage. When I left university in 1965 I knew only one person who had tried cannabis. And it was not Michael.' The Conservative leader, who as Home Secretary twice increased the penalty for using cannabis, at first ignored the question which was put by David Blunkett on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He was later confronted by The World at One and said: 'I take exactly the same view on it as the Government took in October 2000 when every Cabinet minister was asked. They all said it was not an appropriate question to answer.' Mr Blunkett, the Home Secretary, asked whether he had smoked cannabis, replied: 'No, I never smoked cannabis. But if I had, I would be quite transparent about it because 40-odd per cent of under 30-year-olds have.'Mr Howard's bodyswerve was followed by Tony Blairs official spokesman. Asked if the Prime Minister had ever taken cannabis, he said: 'We do not respond to surveys. I am not sure that political debate on this issue is best defined in this way.' The spokesman was then asked why on earth Mr Blunkett raised the issue. 'It was just political knockabout,'came the response. The files, however, are full of evasions to the so-called 'Clinton Question'from Mr Howard while they do contain a categoric denial from Mr Blair in the early days of his Labour leadership. During the campaign for leadership, Jeremy Paxman asked Mr Blair if he had been 'exposed to things like drugs'in his musician days with his band, the Ugly Rumours. Mr Blair said: 'No, I didn't get into drugs.'This did not precisely refute ever having experimented with cannabis but a denial was not far off.
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