Howard was outlining his party's policies on drugs when he made the cutting remark, directed at the UK tabloids, while using wildman Doherty as an example.
"Here you have a man who takes drugs and gets locked up -- yet ends up on the front pages," Howard said.
He also urged celebrities and pop stars to be positive role models.
"We all know that youngsters are more influenced than ever before by the celebrities they see on TV, the musicians they listen to and who are featured in magazines. Some in the media give the impression that drug-taking is cool -- is it any wonder that children believe this?"
Doherty, 25, was arrested last week on blackmail and robbery charges and spent five days in jail before he was released on £50,000 bail.
The pictures taken of him the night he was arrested, which graced the front pages of many of the tabloids, show the singer apparently on drugs, with one eye shut, the other open but rolled to the back of his head and his mouth wide open.
Doherty, the former Libertines frontman, has a well-publicised drug addiction and has admitted to using heroin and smoking dope.
Howard also used the speech to give support to MP Nigel Evan's Private Members Bill which would give drug dealers an automatic seven-year minimum sentence on their third hard-drugs conviction.
He also said that cannabis would be moved back to a class B drug if the Tories came to power.
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