MP Robert Jackson is backing a campaign for the experimental legalisation of cannabis and admitted he smoked pot occasionally while at university, writes Bill Jacobs.

The Wantage MP is one of 15 backbenchers from all parties to call for the move, along the lines of what happens in the Netherlands.

The motion on the Commons Order Paper Parliament's daily paper has been put down by Labour MP Paul Flynn and Mr Jackson is seconding it.

The motion reads: "We believe that the use of recreational cannabis should be allowed under strictly controlled conditions for an experimental period on the lines of the licensed cannabis cafes in the Netherlands." Mr Jackson, 53, a former education minister, said he felt the law had now departed so far from the practice of the public that change was needed.

He confessed to having smoked cannabis while a student at St Edmund Hall, Oxford but said he gave up because it made him sick.

Mr Jackson told the Oxford Mail: "It is a fact that many otherwise perfectly law-abiding people now smoke cannabis for recreational purposes.

"There is now a large gap between people's practice and the law.

"In such cases there are two options: one is enforcing the law vigorously, and the other is changing it. "I don't believe it is possible to enforce the law with full rigor. It would require too much police time and too much intrusion into people's lives.

"I think we should try and experiment along the lines of what happens in the Netherlands."

Of his own experience of the drug, he said: "I smoked cannabis occasionally when a student at Oxford to find out what it was like.

"I think I inhaled, but to be honest, it was so long ago I can't remember.

"I only did it occasionally and I stopped because I found that it made me sick."