TORY leader David Cameron smoked cannabis while a pupil at Eton, it emerged last night.
Cameron, then 15, was one of a number of students who were punished after they were caught using the drug, according to newspaper reports confirmed off the record by a Tory source.
Cameron was "gated" - confined to the school grounds - for two weeks after admitting smoking cannabis but was not suspended, according to the reports. Other pupils were expelled.
Since his campaign for the Tory leadership in 2005, Cameron has refused to say whether he has ever used illicit substances, insisting he had the right to a private life before politics.
The revelations will embarrass Cameron and could lead to further tough questions, but last night the party rallied round him. Lord Tebbit said an error in his youth should not bar him from high office but added it was important for Cameron to come clean about his drug use.
Last night a Conservative Party spokesman said: "This happened almost 25 years ago and David has always maintained that politicians have a right to a private life before they come into politics."
The revelation about Cameron's previous cannabis use is contained in a book entitled Cameron: The Rise Of The New Conservative. According to authors Francis Elliott and James Hanning, seven boys were expelled from Eton in 1982 after staff discovered that pupils were smoking and dealing in cannabis.
Cameron was hauled in to see headmaster Eric Anderson after another pupil named him, and was made to confess to smoking the drug. Because he had only smoked cannabis and not traded in it, he was not expelled like the other boys.
Instead, he was fined, gated and given the school's traditional punishment of a "Georgic" - copying out hundreds of lines of Latin poetry, according to the book.
Anderson, who refused to discuss Cameron, told the authors: "We would have said 'Let's get the ring leaders', and if there were others involved, we would have scared them off from doing it again." The scandal was reported in several national newspapers at the time, but none named Cameron.
The book says the police oversaw an investigation by the school to root out all drug users. "The initial culprits were called upon to reveal to whom they had sold drugs, an offence that ensured automatic expulsion," it says. "On the first day, seven were summarily thrown out and the investigation began to snowball."
Drugs squad police searched pupils' rooms for evidence of cannabis, which was thought to have been smoked in parties where groups of around 10 boys listened to reggae records.
One of the pupils who was forced to leave said: "A couple of guys were going to Slough to buy the stuff. We were heavily leaned on to give names. There were a lot of people involved."
Tebbit said the new revelations would not do Cameron much good with Tory activists, but should not damage his career at the top of politics.
"I think it matters, but not in the sense that because when somebody was 18 or 20 they did something that was pretty damn stupid, that it disqualifies them from holding high office in their 40s when hopefully they have come to their senses.
"I think we have to take a reasoned view about these things, and the question now is whether or not he understands it is a highly dangerous drug and should be treated as such."
Tebbit urged Cameron to come clean about his drug use, in order to put the story behind him.
"I would have advised him to clear it up early on, and my advice to him now would be 'Get it out of the way, get it over with and it will be a seven-day wonder. If you don't, people will keep turning up with another expose'."
Shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth - who has previously admitted smoking cannabis as a youngster - said: "What happened 20 years ago at school seems to me to have no bearing whatsoever on what is happening today.
"I don't think it makes any difference at all. David has always said very clearly that what people do in their private life before they go into politics is of no concern to people once they are in politics.
"People have a right to a private life. We are talking about a schoolboy here, 20 years ago. I don't see why it is a matter of public interest at all."
Last month, Cameron said he would consider legalising cannabis for medicinal use if he wins power, but ruled out decriminalising it for recreational use.
Talking on his website, he said: "If it could be proved there was a real medicinal benefit I would be relaxed by that. My decision would be to license it if we can prove the medicinal benefits.
"If you decriminalise, you increase the availability and make it more difficult for parents who are trying to keep their children away from drugs."
News that he used cannabis in the past may lay Cameron open to attack by his probable rival in the next General Election, Chancellor Gordon Brown, who has made it clear that he has never used illegal drugs.
Within minutes of the news breaking, a discussion had begun on the "open blog" section of Cameron's website,
www.webcameron.org.uk over whether it would affect his popularity.
One contributor, calling himself Donnie, wrote: "Personally I don't have a problem with this, as long as he is not hypocritical about people who use cannabis - I noted in his video he would only consider making it legal for medical reasons. The trouble is these people are all so two-faced, it's always a case of do as I say, not as I do."
Another, using the nickname kozmicstu, said: "I think MPs are definitely entitled to a past."
Cameron's Eton days come back to haunt him
IT WAS a story waiting to be written since David Cameron became party leader, with his enemies becoming increasingly frustrated at their inability to land a glove on this Teflon Tory.
The only real surprise is that the tale of drug-taking has emerged from his school days and not his years in the world of PR. But the tale provides the first evidence of a politician with a genuine chance of becoming prime minister breaking the law in this way.
The public response will tell us much about the development of the nation's attitudes over several generations. For David Cameron this morning, however, all that matters is how this troublesome development affects his own career prospects. Previously he has been noncommittal over drug taking, saying only that he had not taken Class A drugs as an MP.
The sanguine response of his aides to the new revelations suggests they were waiting for the full truth to emerge one day. They will now hope that the Tory grassroots will forgive him this youthful indiscretion - and that he may be able to make political capital out of it. So, expect a heart-to-heart television interview on how his experiences have shaped his approach to the crucial issue of drugs in society.
The downside is that this is the start of the Cameron Drug Story, not the end. Rival politicians last night vowed to let this remain a personal issue - but the temptation to make capital may prove too great as the election looms.
The full article contains 1243 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
