Keighley MP Ann Cryer is supporting a House of Commons motion which could see the setting up of experimental cannabis cafes.

Mrs Cryer and Mike Wood, MP for Batley and Spen, are supporting the call for the cafes to be established across Britain on a trial basis.

But Mrs Cryer has stressed she is supporting the move with certain reservations. "I don't like to use the word cafe because it implies I support places being set up where people can walk in off the street and use the drug," she says.

"I'd prefer the places to be strictly licensed, like public houses, and under very strong control. If it doesn't work and there are still problems with people abusing the drug, then I think it should be abandoned."

She supported the idea if it brought the use of the drug under control and had an impact on its use by very young people.

Mrs Cryer is a supporter of the drug being used for medical purposes, especially for people suffering multiple sclerosis.

"I can't understand why it can't be available on prescription like other drugs."

She believed it would have no more worse effect on the body that many other medicines and drugs which were readily available on prescription.

But Tory Councillor Anne Hawkesworth (Ilkley) says: "I think that producing areas where people can go to smoke cannabis is entirely the wrong way to go about tackling the drugs problem. Encouraging people to go into an exclusive area to take the drug is sending out entirely the wrong message."

The illegal use of drugs was a big problem in the Keighley and Bradford area and everything possible should be done to protect vulnerable young people, she added.

Paul Anderson, of Keighley, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is chairman of the Yorkshire MS Society, said many sufferers used cannabis to help relieve some of the symptoms.

"The use is at present stigmatised because people have to go to illegal sources and they are not sure of what they are getting. Cafes like the ones being suggested would help the situation, but at present the drug is illegal and we can't condone its use," he says.

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