October 2000 - When the Conservatives sold out to the Druggies

Fittingly it was under the leadership of William Hague, today's Foreign Secretary, during the party conference season that the leadership, rank and file of the Conservative Party placed themselves in the hands of the admitted drug heads, seven admitted (former?) drugs users in the Shadow Cabinet alone according to this summary of events.

Anne Widdecombe, correctly assessing the dangers to society and her own party in particular from the growing acceptance of substance abuse had proposed a £100 fine for the possession of even small quantities of drugs such as cannabis. Opposition grew, led among others by Francis Maude, present Cabinet Secretary, as may be read in this Telegraph report from here. Five of those senior Tories admitting drugs misuse at the time are named in this link.

As I linked yesterday, it was reported subsequently in the Observer, linked again here, that not only did the present Prime Minister admit to taking drugs while only fifteen years old at Eton, the prime age now identified as high risk for permanent brain damage, he asloc continued to misuse cannabis whilst at Oxford, I quote:

The Conservative leader - who has repeatedly dismissed media inquiries by refusing to comment publicly on whether he has taken drugs - was also understood to have continued occasionally to smoke pot as a university student at Oxford. 

The Independent, around the same time, also carried out a pretty complete investigation of Cameron's past, which may be read from here.

So where does that leave the country as Parliament returns this Monday morning from its long summer recess. Quite clearly with a Government led by a brain-damaged and weak-willed man quite incapable of grasping the scale of the problems the country faces. Alongside him are possibly several other senior Cabinet members from his own party similarly encumbered, and a Foreign Secretary, reportedly with an IQ of 144, unreduced by any substance misuse but with absolutely zero street-cred or smarts, given his decision while party leader to hand its organisation and operation to the druggies, plus his record at the FCO, absolutely typified by his recent threat for Britain to apparently thwart all diplomatic norms by storming the Ecuadorian Embassy.

One report from Science Daily on the lasting brain damage caused by adolescent use of cannabis is here:

An international research team has found that persistent, dependent use of marijuana before age 18 has been shown to cause lasting harm to a person's intelligence, attention and memory