HALF of the Scottish National party’s shadow cabinet, who could be running the country within a week, have admitted smoking cannabis before they entered politics.

Among those who said they had tried the drug are Nicola Sturgeon, the party’s deputy leader, Shona Robison, who could become Scotland’s next health minister, and Fiona Hyslop, potentially the next schools minister.

Others include Tricia Marwick, the SNP’s housing spokeswoman, Stewart Maxwell, its culture spokesman, and Bruce Crawford, its business manager and campaign chief.

Crawford said he smoked a joint to relieve the disappointment of watching Scotland lose a football match against Spain.

Fergus Ewing, the party’s transport spokesman, said he had been suspended for two weeks after being caught smoking the drug as a 16-year-old pupil at Loretto, Scotland’s oldest independent boarding school, near Edinburgh.

Sturgeon and the other six frontbenchers said they did not believe that experimenting with a soft drug in their youth should count against serving politicians.

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, John Swinney, the shadow finance minister, Kenny MacAskill, the shadow justice minister, and Richard Lochhead, the shadow environment minister, said they had never tried cannabis, but did not think youthful experimentation should overshadow a politician’s career.

All the shadow ministers contacted by The Sunday Times were opposed to decriminalising or legalising cannabis, referring to growing evidence that more powerful modern varieties appear to be a contributory factor in some mental illnesses.

Jack McConnell and other Labour ministers and deputies refused to answer questions on whether or not they had smoked cannabis.

Nicol Stephen, the Liberal Democrat leader, and his party colleagues Tavish Scott, Ross Finnie, Robert Brown and George Lyon said they had never tried the drug.

Annabel Goldie, the Conservative leader, said she had not used it. Her deputy, Murdo Fraser, refused to say if he had or had not. David Cameron, the UK Conservative leader, was punished at Eton after being caught smoking cannabis.

Ms Goldie said: “I certainly wouldn’t regard as culpable or as disgraced anybody who, in their youth, did experiment with substances. Good heavens! People are human. I think the important thing is what they come to realise in adulthood, and the sensible decisions they then make.

Mr Fraser said: “I take the David Cameron line on these issues. Anything I might have done in a previous life is of no relevance today.”

Sturgeon, expected to play a senior role in a future SNP-led administration, said: “I experimented when I was a student, but it made me sick, so I didn’t use it again. It and I didn’t get on. I’m against it being decriminalised. I have never been persuaded of it being harmless. I think there is evidence that it leads to addiction and is a pathway into harder drugs.”

Robison said: “I think it was a party and it might have been getting passed around. I tried it once, didn’t like it, and had a puff as everybody did, and that was it. If there were politicians who were regularly puffing away now then that would be a different matter.” Marwick said: “I did it once and it was horrible. Somebody told me how to do it, and I choked and I coughed, and it was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. I have never tasted it since. It was at a flat at a party in Edinburgh. This is meant to make me mellow, they told me, but it made me sick.”

Crawford said he was in his twenties when he tried the drug on a trip home from Spain after a dismal World Cup qualifier by Scotland. It did nothing for him.

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