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# If there is no smoke, can there be fire?
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/if-there-is-no-smoke-can-there-be-fire/
- Published: 2010-07-23T17:07:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-22T09:44:50.000Z
- Description: The would be Labour leaders sniff the signals
- Author: Anthony Barnett
- Tags: Europe, #Migrated, Politics & activism, United Kingdom, Democracy and government, UK, Civil Society, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 15:45, #appended-excerpt

My OK Co-Editor, Guy Aitchison, asks the Labour leadership candidates if they are willing to take drugs out of the hands of criminals and other unregulated capitalists, and bring them under public control. Here are their answers:

In today's [New Statesman ](http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/07/interview-abbott-labour-party?ref=opendemocracy.net)there is a survey of their habits. With the exception of Andy Burnham saying he'd inhaled merely a "pathetic" amount of cannabis at Cambridge, they all deny taking any drugs at all. What can they be on?

The would be Labour leaders sniff the signals