Pubdate: Fri, 09 Jun 2000 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 2000 David Syme & Co Ltd Contact: 250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia Website: http://www.theage.com.au/ Author: Carolyn Jones, Education Correspondent DELAHUNTY JOINS THE POLLIE POT REGIME Today's baby boomer politicians have a lot to thank Bill Clinton for. Since the US President admitted early in his presidential career that he smoked marijuana at university - without inhaling, of course - many powerbrokers of his generation have followed suit, revealing that they too have had the occasional puff. It's getting to be quite a long list. Former long-serving Labor minister Gareth Evans and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer were among the first to put up their hands in the early 1990s by admitting they had smoked pot when they were university students. And just last year, when still in opposition, Premier Steve Bracks confessed that he had imbibed during his university days but "it really didn't do much" for him. Education Minister Mary Delahunty is the latest to join the club. Asked yesterday, at the launch of the State Government's Get Wise drug education kit whether she had smoked dope at university, Ms Delahunty was quick to respond. "I thought you might ask me that ... yes, I did ... and that's it," she said. But it seems the minister did not take the advice that the kit, which is based on the harm minimisation approach, gives to teachers. A section on possible scenarios says teachers, if asked by students if they had smoked dope at university, should "minimise personal disclosures where possible". But while Ms Delahunty is the latest in a long line of politicians to confess, her admission about her LaTrobe university days hasn't impressed Liberal education spokesman Phil Honeywood. He was adamant that he had never tried the stuff, even though he had been tempted when he was a student at the Australian National University. "I never had any desire to try it. It wasn't something I was ever interested in," he said. Mr Honeywood said he was disappointed with the minister, saying her confession to reporters at a Williamstown Secondary College was inappropriate. "Ms Delahunty is the education minister and she is meant to be a role model. It's unfortunate that a school environment was the forum for her to publicly state her own drug-taking," he said. But drug education expert Geoff Munro, of the Australian Drug Foundation, said Ms Delahunty's revelation should come as no surprise because figures showed that more than 40 per cent of adults had experimented with cannabis at least once. "It's ironic that a politician is being criticised for being honest," he said. "We need to acknowledge that drug use is rife right throughout our society." - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck