A north Wales police boss is calling for people to be allowed to grow their own cannabis.

According to North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones, it should be legally controlled just like alcohol and tobacco which caused more harm to individuals and society in general.

Mr Jones, a former police officer, is calling for a new licencing system to be introduced so that cannabis could be sold through pharmacies and in shops as happens in Canada, Uruguay and certain states in America.

The commissioner is a long-standing campaigner for the reform of drugs laws because, he says, they just don’t work.

He believes prohibition is counter-productive and plays into the hands of drugs overlords.

Mr Jones said: “It is a nonsense to criminalise people who take cannabis for recreational use and cause no harm to anybody else.

“The best way to reduce the role of organised crime in the supply of drugs is to put it in commercial hands and to price it appropriately so people don’t need to go to the illegal market.

“Commercial organisations have taken over the medicinal cannabis market and are selling prescriptions at a vast cost even though it is cheap to grow.  That’s just exploitation in my book.

“My view is that people should be allowed to grow a limited number of cannabis plants for their own use."

See this week’s north editions for the full story, in shops and online on Thursday