The ban on cannabis should be scrapped, a chief constable has said, as he called for drug addiction to be seen as a “health issue not a criminal justice matter”.

Mike Barton, who leads the Durham police force, said that a prevailing “lack of common sense” about drugs has led to it being a taboo to debate the issue "far too long”.

Speaking in a debate in the House of Lords this week, he warned that the status quo is “untenable”.

He said he is not called for legalisation or decriminalisation, but regulation. “It is so sad and distressing that families and children have been caught up in the histrionics caused by the current lack of common sense about drugs which has been a taboo to debate for far too long,” he said.

“Drug addiction is a health issue, not a criminal justice matter. Prohibition did not work for alcohol in the USA and just like the States prohibition in the UK is putting billions of pounds into the hands of our most dangerous criminals.”