Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese has called for drugs to be decriminalised as he warned that arresting spice dealers is having ‘no impact whatsoever’ on the substance’s sale.

In a speech at the region’s latest combined authority meeting , he said Britain would not beat drugs via the criminal justice system, but through treatment.

He was speaking as Greater Manchester signed off its new drug and alcohol strategy, designed to reduce the region’s particularly high death and addiction rates.

Sir Richard highlighted spice as a specific crisis for the city, arguing that while it was a problem before it was outlawed three years ago, since then the situation has got far worse.

“We had problems with spice addiction, but what we didn’t have was dozens of people standing like zombies on streets in the middle of our city,” he said.

Criminalisation had made supply ‘less predictable’, he added, ‘so that people buying spice can have anything from something that has no effect whatsoever because it’s a fake, through to something that’s so strong that the drug is far more intense - or it could be a different drug completely’.

“What it also did was bring organised crime into the thing, so instead of being sold legally in shops, in ways that were measured, that we knew what was on sale, it’s now sold illegally on the street through organised crime in a way that’s completely unregulated.”

As fast as the police can lock up dealers, they are replaced by more, he added.

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“Police are doing a fantastic job,” he said.

“If you look at rates of arrest around dealing, manufacture and so on of these drugs, there has been an enormous success rate from that point of view - and it’s a success that’s having no impact whatsoever in terms of the selling of spice, because every time one dealer is taken off the street, another one takes their place.

“This is something effectively setting what’s already a hard-pressed police force an impossible task.”

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Manchester has suffered a particularly serious escalation of its street drugs problem in recent years, including heroin, partly as a result of rising visible homelessness and the emergence of spice as a cheap and highly-addictive substance used by many rough sleepers.

Police have upped their operations in response, but Sir Richard said ultimately that would never be the solution.

“We are not going to beat drugs through the criminal justice system,” he said.

“I think it’s about time as a nation we woke up and recognised that.

“I’m not talking legalise; freely available drugs. I am talking about decriminalisation. I am talking about regulation.

“Something that takes it out of the organised criminal’s hands and puts it back into the hands of the people who can help people with very real problems.”