MP Who Was Stoned In Parly Says Several MPs Smoke

Several New South Wales MPs currently smoked marijuana, according to upper house MP Richard Jones, who said today he used the illegal drug to relieve stress and had once been stoned in parliament.

The independent also welcomed state opposition leader Kerry Chikarovski's revelation she smoked marijuana while at university in the 1970s.

Less than one week before a drug summit at parliament house, Mrs Chikarovski quipped on US President Bill Clinton's famous defence of his dope smoking.

"Do you want me to use the Clinton defence? Did I inhale?" she said on ABC Radio.

Mr Jones, a former Democrat, told journalists: "I actually wonder if she ever exhaled, in fact.

"I think she's qualified herself for the drug summit because most of the people there have used drugs of one form or another."

Mrs Chikarovski said the drug should not be legalised because she believed it was 30 times stronger now than it was when her generation used it.

Mr Jones disagreed with her claim.

"That's simply not true because in those days we used to have Buddha sticks and Lebanese wedding hash and Durban poison," he said.

"We had a lot imported in those days and now it's mostly homegrown, and it's not any stronger, I can assure you."

Mr Jones said he believed at least six MPs smoked marijuana and at least half the 135 MPs would have used marijuana, based on a survey of federal parliamentarians.

He said he had been stoned in parliament house once four or five years ago and now used marijuana once every fortnight.

"Sometimes I get really stressed out and then I have a couple of tokes of a joint and I meditate for one or two hours and it really brings me down tremendously," he said.

He took the opportunity to take a swipe at former upper house president Max Willis, who was caught presiding over the chamber drunk.

"I have never spoken in the house, I don't think, that I recall, when I'm stoned," he said.

"Nor have I been in there when I'm drunk either, which is very common, of course, for other people."