A COUNCILLOR has given his blessing to a borough's first Amsterdam-style coffee shop.

Hyndburn councillor John Burke says the opening of the cafe, above Studio One tattoo parlour, Warner Street, Accrington, should be welcomed as a way of pushing the boundaries towards the legalisation of cannabis.

Customers at the cafe will be allowed to smoke cannabis although none will be sold and no hard drugs will be allowed.

Speaking at the cafe, opened by Frank and Margaret Mac, Coun Burke -- who says he has smoked cannabis -- said he felt the controlled drug should be legalised as a way of raising taxation for the government.

He said: "The government is talking about raising people's personal tax and to me this is a way of stopping that and finding extra revenue.

"I think it should be legalised and taxed. It would also take it away from the streets and put it into an environment like this which is more adult based." And he disputed the argument that use of cannabis automatically leads to use of harder drugs.

He added: "In a very small minority of cases there might be people that will move towards harder drugs. The only way to eradicate that is to eradicate hard drugs. Certain dealers deal in all forms of drugs but not all dealers.

"The reason a lot of people move on to harder drugs is because of peer pressure, and places like this would help take away that peer pressure.

"It would cut the market for dealers and by doing that it would cut their links to teenagers.

"I don't think it's irresponsible. I actually think it's a way of moving our society on to the next level of our personal civilisation. Cannabis has been around since time immemorial. Tribes all over the world use it for recreation."

Mr Mac welcomed Coun Burke's support and said the police should give the cafe a chance to prove the use of cannabis could be controlled.

"This is what we need. In the UK we are so old fashioned it's unbelievable. This is an 18-licensed studio. We are adults not kids. It's under supervision here and they would rather it was out of sight and out of mind.

"I don't think the government will legalise it but I think they will decriminalise it.

"Let's show the police that we can control this. If they can give us a bit of a gap of one or two months they will never get any violence here. But hard drugs, no way."

A page devoted to the cafe is to be added to the tattoo parlour's web site, which can be found at www.studioonetattooing.c

om. Police have said they would be monitoring the situation.