Not many MPS are prepared to call for the legalisation of cannabis and the decriminalisation of ecstasy.

Fewer still are willing to admit that they’ve taken drugs.

But then Withington MP Jeff Smith is a bit different from your average politician.

As an indie, dance and house DJ in the 1990s and early 2000s he played at some of the north’s top clubs and club nights, including Poptastic in the Gay Village, the Leadmill in Sheffield and Cockpit in Leeds.

During a 20 year career in the music industry he played in front of tens of thousands of people during a regular slot on the main stage at V Festival, warming up for mega-stars such as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Prodigy, Blur and Pulp, and on one particularly memorable night found himself doing the after-show party at a Stereophonics concert underneath the stage at Old Trafford cricket ground.

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It’s this background which has perhaps given the music-mad 54-year-old more of an insight into drug culture, and the people involved, than your average MP.

And crucially it’s also helped shape his liberal views on the matter.

Earlier this month, during a debate on the government’s latest drugs policy, the former Manchester councillor called for sweeping reform of our drugs laws.

In an impassioned speech in Parliament he urged the government to legalise cannabis and decriminalise pretty much every other drug, arguing it would save lives and transform society for the better.

Speaking to the M.E.N. in his constituency office in Withington fire station, the Manchester-raised 54-year-old, explained the reasoning behind his stance.

“Like many people my age I’ve taken drugs in the past, and I’ve spent a lot of time around people who have regularly used recreational drugs,” he said.

“I’m not promoting drug use, but I think I have an understanding of why people do it, and the culture around recreational drug use.”

Legalising and decriminalising drugs would, in Mr Smith’s view, have two main benefits.

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It would help protect and stop criminalising the tens of thousands of people who use drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy recreationally and also allow give the authorities greater scope to help and treat the addicts whose lives are being blighted by their use of harder substances such as heroin and crack.

And as a couple of added bonuses he says it would free up a massive amount of police resources and through taxes raised from the sale of cannabis potentially generate, according to some estimates, up a billion pounds per year for the Treasury.

Mr Smith, who was elected to Parliament in 2015, said: “We need to recognise that drugs do play a part in people’s lives.

“We need to put the emphasis on reducing the risk, making drugs a health issue rather than a criminal issue.

“Cannabis users run the risk of getting a criminal record for using a substance that in my view is less harmful than tobacco or alcohol. It is not helpful, it is in nobody’s interest. “It’s even more dangerous to criminalise addicts.

“If you are addicted to heroin the stigma around that drug has the potential to stop you seeking help.”

Mr Smith disputes the argument that legalising or decriminalsing a drug makes it easier to get hold of and therefore increases use, saying evidence from Portugal, which decriminalised the use of all drugs in 2001, suggests a dramatic rise in drug taking feared by some has failed to materialise.

And he also pointed to other figures from Portugal, which show that since 2001 the number of overdose deaths has fallen to 3.3 per million people compared to 44.7 per million people in UK.

“Eight states in the US have legalized cannabis and Canada is going to become the first G8 country to legalize cannabis,” said Mr Smith.

“All over the world people are starting to realise that prohibition does not work.”

During his speech in Parliament Mr Smith highlighted the case of 15-year-old Martha Fernback, from Oxford, who died in 2014 after taking 91 per cent-pure MDMA, arguing she died because of the ‘failure’ of the UK’s drugs policy.

Allowing pill testing in clubs, would, Mr Smith believes, have saved Matha’s life.

“People think testing will encourage greater use of pills, but if someone wants to take pills they will.

“We need to accept the fact that we have a problem, we have an issue. People will take drugs and we need to end the stigma.”

Mr Smith makes a powerful argument but admits that he, and the handful of MPs of a similar mind, probably face a long road ahead of them.

But is hopeful that attitudes, inside and outside Parliament, are slowly changing.

“It is a pipe dream to say we can stop all drug taking,” he added.

“The conversation should be how do we make it safer?

“I am not encouraging people to take drugs. I am not saying I took drugs and it was fine for me, but we need to acknowledge the fact that people do take drugs, so the thing is just taking the risk out of it.”