Michael Gove: «I used marijuana, but I didn't get very high»

Michael Gove said drug use was «a feature of the student experience»; Photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images.

Michael Gove said he took drugs while at Oxford University but did not reach a «very high level» because cannabis was weaker in the 1980s.

The Leveling Minister said that, in his opinion, the public «passed the stage» of «intense interest» in the history of drug use by politicians, and now he is worried about the power of drugs on the streets of the UK.

When asked on the Times Radio podcast whether he took drugs during his studies at Oxford University, Mr Gove replied: «Yes, I did,» adding that substance use was «a feature of the student experience for many people.»

But he said he was concerned about drug use among young people now because the power of street marijuana has increased over the past 35 years.

“Not wanting to get too deep into the politics of it, I think the type of cannabis, marijuana, that is available now, will often have a much higher THC content — a much higher capacity to cause harm,” he said.Mr Gove believes that the cannabis produced today can exacerbate mental illness. Credit: Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters

THC is the psychoactive substance in cannabis that makes users feel «high» after smoking or eating.

When asked if he meant that he is “not very high,” Mr. Gove replied, “No.”

“ Another thing that I think is the evidence for a link between excessive smoking or cannabinoid overuse and mental illness, psychosis and so further more pronounced,” he said.

Mr Gove’s bid to lead the Conservative Party was derailed in 2019 after it was revealed he had taken cocaine while working as a journalist after leaving Oxford in 1988.

He apologized for his actions, telling the Daily Mail: which serialized the biography with the statement, «I did do drugs. I deeply regret this. Drugs harm lives. They are dangerous, and it was a mistake.”

He later said that he was lucky that he was not sent to prison.