Is Britain about to get its first CANNABIS cafe? Amsterdam-style 'coffee shop' could open in KENT after Green Party councillor spearheads campaign

Councillor Ian Driver for Thanet, Kent, is looking for venues in the county



In Holland the cannabis cafes are called 'coffee shops'

If successful, the cafe would be the first in the country

A public meeting will be held tomorrow in Broadstairs to discuss plans



Plans for a Manchester cannabis cafe were quashed earlier this year

Britain could get its first cannabis cafe if a Green Party councillor's attempt to open a shop in Kent gets the go ahead.

Ian Driver, a councillor for Thanet District Council, has already started looking for possible sites for an Amsterdam-style cafe in Margate or Ramsgate in anticipation of a law change.

Mr Driver, who has admitted to being an ex-recreational drug-user, has submitted his proposals in response to what he considers a shift in popular opinion towards legalising the class-B drug.

In February, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that the UK should explore alternatives to a blanket ban on drugs and Britain should be at the heart of the debate.

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Britain's first cannabis cafe would be modelled on an Amsterdam-style coffee shop

In response to this, Mr Driver believes there is now a demand in Britain for a venue where users would be able to smoke the class-B drug in the same way as in Amsterdam.



Similar plans for a members-only cannabis cafe in Manchester, where users would have only been able to buy the drug once legalised, were rejected in January.



But Mr Driver believes his plans, with the backing of the community, stand a better chance of being approved and he is holding a public meeting in Thanet tomorrow to gather local opinion.



However, Mr Driver has faced opposition from Kent Police, who refused to even discuss the issue.

Anne Barnes, Kent's Police and Crime Commissioner for the area, declined an invitation to attend the meeting where a number of speakers will debate the proposals.



Speakers due to attend the meeting include professor Alex Stevens from The University of Kent, who is an expert on the subject of drugs and crime and has written several books on the topic.



Last year, Mr Stevens backed a controversial trial by Kings College London which involved 'the nasal administration of cocaine' by hundreds of students.

Other attendees will include the Kent Cannabis Consortium, a group which meets to discuss the plant and the laws surrounding it, and charity UK Cannabis Social Clubs.

A Kent Councillor for Thanet, Ian Driver, (left) is leading plans to launch Britain's first cannabis cafe. A public meeting discussing the plans will be held tomorrow in Broadstairs, Kent. Alex Stevens (right), a professor at The University of Kent and an expert on drugs and crime will be attending the meeting



Mr Driver told The Independent that he had been 'inundated with messages from local cannabis users who said they will be coming to the meeting'.



He said: 'The debate about drugs and policing is becoming much more topical.'

But Kent police commissioner Ms Barnes told the newspaper that a cannabis cafe would be illegal unless drug laws were changed.

She said: 'We live in a democracy and if people want the law changed on the use of cannabis, then they really need to lobby their local MP.'

Kent police commissioner Anne Barnes said that a cannabis cafe in in the area would be illegal unless drug laws were changed

This is not the first time the concept of a cannabis cafe has been floated in the UK.

In January, police in Manchester blocked the introduction of a cannabis 'social club' in the city's Northern Quarter.

The man behind the club was Colin Davies who once famously handed the Queen a bouquet of flowers containing cannabis.



His planned club would have been open to members only at a fee of £35 per year.



Drugs would not have been sold at the cafe unless there had been a change in the law.



But Greater Manchester Police said that the cafe would attract criminality and would be difficult to police and the concept was quashed.