The British cabinet minister who is leading a review of drug laws said Thursday that she had smoked cannabis in college.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made the admission a day after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the government was reviewing a decision three years ago to downgrade penalties for possession of the drug.

“I smoked cannabis a few times. I think it was wrong,” Smith said in an interview with Sky News.

“And actually now I share quite a lot of people’s concerns about the way in which both the strength of some forms of cannabis is increasing and the evidence of its link to mental health problems.”

In 2004, the government downgraded cannabis from Class B, which includes amphetamines and barbiturates, to Class C, which includes some prescription tranquilizers and bodybuilding steroids.

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