THREE of Scotland's political leaders have admitted taking cannabis, while Labour's Jim Murphy said he couldn't remember if he ever sniffed glue while growing up.
SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie told students at a debate at the University of Glasgow that they had tried cannabis in their youth, after being questioned about their policy on decriminalising the drug.
Mr Murphy, who is teetotal, said that "glue sniffing was the thing" in the Glasgow housing estate he grew up in. When asked whether he had tried it, he replied: "I don't remember", before adding: "At that time, drugs, and I'm giving away my age, it was just a kind of working class thing to do, kind of sniffing glue out of crisp pokes. It was a dreadful, harmful thing that was in that community at the time."
A spokesman for Scottish Labour later said that the party leader had "never taken drugs" and that he had been making the point that "when he was growing up drugs weren't as widespread and that the harmful thing for many people back then was glue sniffing." He added: "For the record that's not something Mr Murphy has tried either."
The leaders were commenting on research by the Institute for Social and Economic Research which said up to £900 million a year could be raised through taxation of a regulated cannabis market, and were later asked if they had tried the drug.
Ms Sturgeon said: "I'm actually on record as making an admission on this once, probably, possibly at this university although not at this union, but it made me awfully sick."
Mr Rennie said: "Yes, in my youthful days" while Ms Davidson responded by saying: "I went to Buckhaven High School, what do you think? I'm with Nicola, once or twice and it made me feel really sick."
Former Lib Dem minister Norman Baker resigned from the Home Office in November, claiming Home Secretary Theresa May suppressed proposals to reform drugs policy.
Mr Rennie said it was a "despicable" decision and called for an open debate on drug use in the UK "based on facts and science".
Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murphy echoed his call for an open debate on drugs but said cannabis should not be legalised, citing evidence linking it to mental health problems.
The First Minister said: "I think where Willie is right is that you should always trust the public to have grown up, evidence based debates, and I definitely don't think suppressing evidence on issues like this helps a debate like this at all."
Ms Davidson said: "I think some things are worth more than money, and the health of our nation is one of them."
The debate, at the university's Queen Margaret Union on Thursday night, was the first time that Mr Murphy had faced other Scottish party bosses in a public debate as Labour leader, with his status as an MP meaning is yet to enter the Holyrood chamber.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article