Jeremy Corbyn has said "criminalising people for possession of small amounts of cannabis is not a particularly good idea", although he stopped short of backing any change in the law regarding recreational use, even though he signed an early day motion in 2000 calling for the possession of cannabis to be decriminalised.
On Sunday, however, Mr Corbyn would not be drawn on whether he would support such a move and when asked whether cannabis should be decriminalised for recreational, as well as medical use, he said: "I think at this stage we should say that medical use of cannabis is good.
"Cannabis oil use is clearly beneficial to people and that should be decriminalised and made readily available as quickly as possible."
Mr Corbyn stressed the importance of considering the health concerns that arise from all drug-taking and told Sky's Sophy Ridge that "no drug is without consequences when people take it".
"Personally, I don't take any drugs at all and I think we should just think about it quite carefully but let's go with what's proposed now which is the availability of cannabis for medicinal purposes," he said.
