Mary Ann Sieghart: "Richard Bacon's job was not affected by what he did"

The Times' Mary Ann Sieghart said: "I can't believe they sacked him. How are they going to find another 22-year-old who's never taken drugs in his life?

"It just seems incredibly petty. He had a good night out."

Presenter Richard Bacon was fired on Sunday from the BBC's longest running children's television programme over a newspaper story that revealed he had snorted cocaine at a party.

Mary Ann Sieghart: "Recreational cocaine not dangerous"

She was responding to an audience member who asked: "Wouldn't it have been more beneficial to put Richard Bacon on Blue Peter and show his remorse there, rather than in the newspapers?"

Ms Sieghart said that prohibition exacerbated the problem of drugs and called for their legalisation.

"Cocaine is not dangerous if it's taken recreationally," she said.

"I wish politicians would consider new approaches. It's the gangsters who trade in it. Tthey make billions of pounds out of ... others people's misfortune.

Mary Ann Sieghart: "Prohibition in the UK is exacerbating the drugs problem"

"If you brought it out it the open you could licence it, regulate it and take all that money out of gangsters' pockets."

Her comments were the most outspoken of a guest panel that included film director Michael Winner, Secretary of State for Wales Ron Davies MP, Shadow Trade and Industry spokesman John Redwood MP and Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru's Helen Mary Jones.

The debate, televised live on Thursday night, sparked a wide range of reactions from the panel, audience members and viewers who e-mailed their comments to the Question Time Website.

Richard Bacon: Agreed he should be sacked

Mr Redwood argued that Mr Bacon was supposed to be a role model and a hero to young people and had done the right thing by resigning.

"He agreed he should be sacked and I think that's the one decent thing he did in the whole saga," he said.

Mrs Jones agreed that he had to go, but insisted that the way in which it was handled was patronising to "children and young people".

Mary Ann Sieghart: "Plenty of people take cocaine without getting into trouble"

"It could have been used as a proper debate. Children are very sophisticated about drugs," she said.

Viewers who emailed their responses were broadly of the opinion that a good opportunity for a debate about drugs had been lost.

Others attacked Ms Sieghart for her "total disregard for biochemical fact" and for "trying to be cool" by pandering to drug culture.

Viewer Mark Gray summed up the mood: "Perhaps it would be better to use him as an example to show how drug taking can wreck people's lives, both personally and career-wise.

"If football can allow Paul Merson the opportunity to rehabilitate and have a second chance why not the BBC?