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Theresa May refuses to consider relaxing laws on cannabis use, despite a desperate plea from an anxiety sufferer.

The question came up during a live Facebook Q&A hosted by ITV News.

"Emma wants to know why you can't support cannabis legalisation," moderator Robert Peston said.

"She says it's the only thing that helps her debilitating anxiety, but she has to be a criminal to get the only thing that helps her."

But Mrs May refused to commit to it.

“There have obviously been some studies into the use of cannabis or derivatives for medical use,” she said.

(Image: AFP)

“The reason I don’t believe in making cannabis use legal is because of the impact I see it having on too many people in terms of the drug use.

“What we've seen is stronger forms now being used - I think it can have a real impact on people in terms of their mental health.

"But it can also of course lead to people going on to harder drugs.

"There's a wonderful woman in my constituency, Elizabeth Burton Phillips who runs something called DrugFAM, which supports families.

"One of her twin sons - they both started on cannabis when they were at school and went on to heroin and one of her twin sons committed suicide. This has a huge impact on families."