Most politicians studiously avoid talking about drug reform, particularly Conservatives, because it has always been a no-win scenario for us. This is because it always provokes quite a hostile reaction from the more Right-wing media, and because most Conservative members and voters (unlike Labour and Liberal Democrats) are pretty resistant to any notion of reform. The tough talk of cracking down and prohibition is held tightly, too, by social conservatives, despite the overwhelming evidence that it has failed to improve matters for individuals, families or their communities by almost any measure that would constitute success.

But the world is changing, and changing fast. Over the past decade, with an ever-quickening pace, countries have been reforming their laws to try to get a firmer grip on health, criminal justice and law-and-order issues that are rapidly escalating. Drugs in this country, as in so many around the world, are controlled by organised crime and by criminal gangs. They make huge profits from selling illegal drugs and protect their “industry” with violence, using knives and guns to fight off the competition. As we have seen in London, it has been a root cause of the deaths of many young people in recent years.

Last week I attended the launch of the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group (CDPRG) and heard the heart-rending stories of families touched by drugs in a range of different scenarios. We heard also from Mike Barton, the recently retired chief constable of Durham police, who set out the challenge faced by officers. In an operation lasting several months that cost £500,000, he told us how he busted a drug ring and took 30 dealers off the streets. He then relayed how that operation managed to close the market for just four hours, before it reopened with armed, organised gangs moving into the vacuum created by the success of the police. He made clear his view that we cannot arrest our way out of the drugs epidemic convulsing our society.

Given the seeming futility of the battle that the police are fighting, is there a better way? Recently we have seen the tales of Alfie Dingley and Billy Caldwell, whose treatment-resistant epilepsy responds only to medical cannabis. Moreover, we have seen the NHS verify that there is strong evidence that other conditions, such as MS and the nausea and lack of appetite from chemotherapy, can also be treated in this way.

Chronic pain is another area where cannabis can be used but because of the stigma attached to cannabis we seem far more comfortable as a society prescribing legal but addictive opiates while demonising a far less addictive and dangerous alternative. Shouldn’t we be encouraging early and safe access to medicines derived from cannabis? Over the past 11 years the strength of recreational cannabis has doubled in Europe and now nearly all seizures of it are of high-strength THC cannabis. Pushers have increased the strength to create a more addictive and potent substance. There are also greater returns for every kilogramme smuggled.

This is the mirror image of what occurred with moonshine during prohibition in America. What have the results been? Unsurprisingly, just as would occur if beer were replaced with vodka, a serious health crisis has occurred. Recent studies show that 30 per cent of new first-episode psychosis in London is being attributed to the high-potency cannabis that is being smoked. Surely, at the very least, it is worth considering whether the state should control the quality and strength of cannabis sold on our streets, and therefore protect as best we can our young people from harm? Few now doubt the damage that high-strength cannabis (often referred to as skunk) causes to the developing brain. Currently there are an estimated 2.5 to three million people who have illegally used the drug in the past year — very few are worried about being caught, and fewer know anything about the content and quality of what they are taking.

About 30,000 people caught with cannabis received warnings, and around 18,000 were prosecuted in 2017/18. In the main these were not dealers but young people dragged through the court system and given a criminal record. In Canada the government is wiping away these criminal records for cannabis offences, which have stopped people getting jobs and moving forward in life.

What has been the point of demonising a generation of young people? Why not educate them or direct them into the health system? Countries such as Portugal have more than a decade’s experience of channelling drug-users into the health system and the results show that this has been effective.

Would decriminalising and regulating cannabis in the UK solve all the challenges we face? No, of course not — for example, there would still be an illegal market for super-strength skunk, or the numbers of some users might rise. But the police could focus on the dealers in a massively diminished market and curb the spread of lucrative markets for very violent gangs. There is also an economic argument for regulating cannabis.

If the UK gained the same per-capita tax income as Colorado or Washington state, the Treasury would gain more than £1 billion a year that could go straight into hospitals, police and schools. This is tax purely on the product itself and says nothing of the employment and business taxes currently in the black market.

The clear truth is that the evidence for reform on both medicinal and recreational cannabis is strong. But it is important that Britain looks at the evidence gathered from around the world to see what works and what doesn’t. What is right for California or Canada may not be right for the UK. Let’s get the evidence and the debate out in the open, and let’s talk about an issue that has haunted the centre-Right in a mature and fact-based way.

Andrew Mitchell is the Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield and a former Cabinet minister