Federal Labor MP Peter Garrett is “under pressure to take a drug test following claims by Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns that the two smoked joints with U2 lead singer Bono in Sydney,” News Limited tabloids scream today.

The pressure is coming from Tony Wood, whose daughter Anna died after taking ecstasy in 1995. Coalition MPs, however, seem quiet on the issue.

That may well be because an air of mutually assured destruction hangs over drug matters at the moment.

Auberon Waugh once famously declared that anyone who hadn’t drunk and driven was “either a prig or a pervert”.

It’s hard to imagine that many people under the age of 50 haven’t had some sort of encounter with the evil weed. Senior political figures on both sides of politics have come up with various circumlocutions to describe their encounters. Nobody really cares as long as pollies aren’t doing bucket bongs for breakfast.

But at the moment, the issue of substance abuse and politics is more threatening. Indeed, the topic is being discussed at length in the Queensland rumour mill.

Some reports even claim that sh-t sheets making allegations against an MP in that state are turning up in their electorate.

This is an issue the government will want to see off the table – quickly.