William Hague, the former leader of the Conservative party, has urged Theresa May to legalise cannabis, saying the UK’s drug policy is “inappropriate, ineffective and utterly out of date” and that the “battle is effectively over”.

Lord Hague said issuing orders to the police to stop people smoking cannabis were “about as up to date and relevant as asking the army to recover the empire”.

In an article in the Telegraph on Tuesday, Hague says the prime minister should be bold and lead a major policy change because it is deluded to think cannabis can be “driven off the streets”.

Downing Street dismissed the idea. “In terms of decriminalising cannabis there are no plans in that respect,” Theresa May’s spokesman said. “The evidence is very clear that cannabis can cause serious harm when it is misused.”



Separately, the Home Office reiterated that the government “has no intention of reviewing the classification of cannabis” and “it will remain a class B drug”.



It stressed that any debate about the medicinal benefits of cannabis “does not extend to any review regarding its classification” and “the illicit possession, cultivation and trafficking of cannabis will remain the same”.

Hague’s comments come amid calls by a growing coalition of MPs, experts, campaigners and families whose children have epilepsy for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use, after the confiscation last week of cannabis oil supplies intended to treat Billy Caldwell, a 12-year-old boy with severe epilepsy.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Charlotte Caldwell and her son Billy, whose supply of cannabis oil used to treat severe epilepsy was confiscated on their return from Canada. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The cabinet appears split on the issue of medicinal cannabis and May distanced herself from calls made by the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for a swift review of the law on Monday..



It is understood that she also overruled the home secretary, Sajid Javid, when he told her it was “absolutely urgent” that the matter was discussed at the cabinet meeting on Monday.

Billy was granted an emergency licence so that he could be treated with cannabis oil after he was taken to hospital in a “life-threatening” condition on Friday.

That move led to pleas from families with children with similar conditions to be granted access to the medicine. There are about 20,000 such children who do not respond to the medication prescribed by the NHS.

On Tuesday, the mother of Alfie Dingley, a boy with severe epilepsy whose seizures almost disappeared after he was prescribed an EU-certified cannabis medicine in Holland, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The prime minister said to me that they would help us to provide this medication for my son. That is what needs to happen.”

“She said to MPs that our application would be allowed on a compassionate basis and it would be dealt with speedily,” Hannah Deacon, who led a high-profile campaign for her son earlier this year, said. “That was three months ago and all we’ve been put through is bureaucracy and hurdles.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Actor Patrick Stewart with Alfie Dingley and parents at Downing Street in March to hand in a petition with 370,000 signatures asking for a licence for the use of cannabis based treatments for Alfie. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Hague’s remarks go beyond the debate about cannabis for medicinal use. In his article, he urges politicians to recognise that “out there, cannabis is ubiquitous”, suggesting that if it were better regulated its strength could be controlled and its sale taxed.

“Over the weekend, the Home Office sensibly backed down and returned Billy’s medicine,” he writes. “By doing so, it implicitly conceded that the law has become indefensible.

“It must now be asked whether Britain should join the many other countries that permit medicinal-grade marijuana, or indeed join Canada in preparing for a lawful, regulated market in cannabis for recreational use as well. Can British Conservatives be as bold as Canadian Liberals? We ought to be.”

Canada is preparing to legalise recreational cannabis after both houses of its parliament voted in favour of the move, making it poised to become the first G7 country to do so.

In Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and most of the US, medical products containing the drug, such as the oil used by Billy, are allowed to be licensed.

Hague claims criminal gangs benefit the most from the drug being illegal and that many police forces have “stopped worrying about it”.

“When a law has ceased to be credible and worth enforcing to many police as well as the public, respect for the law in general is damaged,” he writes. “We should have laws we believe in and enforce or we should get rid of them.”

In response to Hague’s article, Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said “decriminalisation is an obvious step to take”.

“Large amounts of [cannabis] are in circulation in a very damaging form, which is poisoning large numbers of young people and resulting in psychological damage,” he told the Today programme. “That’s what we should be trying to avoid and, as Lord Hague said, the policy is failing.”

May said this week: “There’s a very good reason why we’ve got a set of rules around cannabis and other drugs, because of the impact that they have on people’s lives, and we must never forget that.”