Plans unveiled for cannabis smoking club to be launched in Doncaster

Details of the planned club have been announced on social media as a place where people will be able to “socialise and chill” as well as smoke joints, with a spokesman saying: “This is a safe place, I promise you all.”

There are a number of cannabis clubs around the UK, including one in Teesside which has been operating since 2014.

But cannabis isn't legal and maintains its Class B status - possessing it can result in spending up to five years in prison.

However, club operators in Stockton say they have worked with the local police over the venue, which organisers say is purely members only and is for people who smoke cannabis medicinally.

It is understood the Doncaster cannabis club will be located in a former hairdressing salon on Beckett Road and work is already understood to have started.

A spokesman said: “It's not just a cannabis club, it's a harm reduction centre and social club for people to socialise and chill.

"Pool tables, darts, board games, music, gaming.

"There will be no growing or selling and it will be members only which will be at the discretion of management and will need ID to become a member.

"Permission is in place with everyone that has been needed to be corresponded with. It's not illegal.

"There are many clubs like this in the UK now. It's not ran by d***heads. There are rules and regulations in place.

"All will be done to a high spec with soundproof and filters. Reasonable opening hours. I don't see the harm.

"At the end of the day nothing antisocial will be going on, no tobacco smoking allowed.

"This will all be inside not outside, so no smells or disturbances.

"At the end of the day you will get more trouble from drinkers at clubs. This is a safe place I promise you all.”

"No matter where we choose to open up, there will always be someone with concerns. People just need to trust that it's in good hands and everything is being done above board. We are not monsters.”

The plan has met with a mixe response from local residents.

One said: “This is literally the last thing Wheatley needs - all it is going to do is make things worse.

“Th new owners are saying there is nothing to worry about and thinking only positive things but they aren’t the ones living within the area that already needs help never mind bringing more drama.”

"I have nothing against people smoking weed at all, everyone is free to do what they want,” posted another. “But this club shouldn’t make people living in the area feel anxious and also shouldn’t effect them with the smells and fumes.”

Another posted: “I see nothing wrong with this, everyone’s got such a bad impression of stoners but most of us are decent people.”

And another wrote: “It sounds like a great idea. I wish you success with this. A safe place is what everyone needs. I prefer stoners to drinkers any day, much less drama.”

Another resident added: “I don't even smoke, but if people are doing it safely and it's taking it off of the streets and into somewhere that it's monitored and regulated why are you complaining?”

And another shared: “It's far better to allow those who want to partake to do it safely and in a controlled environment rather than potentially putting themselves and others at risk.

"I'm all for it, weed shouldn't have the status and stigma that it does and if you can add something to the community then why not?”

The club is similar to one which has been running in Teesside for a decade.

The shop in Stockton town centre sells weed-related goodies, with paying members heading into the back to a private club, which, according to the BBC, is a 'consumption room' where members of Teesside Cannabis Club can smoke cannabis.

Club owner Michael Fisher said that despite that stance from the police his interactions with the law have been 'mostly positive' and the club has managed to keep running.

He told the BBC: "Since 2018 when medical cannabis became legal in the UK it's no longer a case of cannabis being illegal in our eyes, it's just unlicensed.

"It's an unlicensed product. It allows you to come somewhere where it's a safe space, you're not gonna be judged, there's no real criminality going on.

"There's no real judgment or stigma attached aside from the use of illicit substances which, once again, if you look around the world at other countries its been legalised, its normalised."

Fisher later told PoliticsJOE that the club was aimed mainly at users of medical cannabis and they 'know people are going to use cannabis no matter what'.

He explained that they were 'trying to remove as many harms as possible' for their club members, and they 'put people into mental health or drug rehabilitation' if they need such services.

Members of the Teesside Cannabis Club get a card which they can show to police to let officers know they are medical cannabis users.

Police in nearby Durham also have a more relaxed policy over cannabis use, stretching back to 2015 when then-Durham police crime commissioner, Ron Hogg, decided the police should take a new approach and no longer actively pursue weed smokers or small-scale growers.

He wanted officers to focus their efforts on more serious crimes, noting that the police would be better off going after dealers than users.

While the drug is still illegal in Durham and a spokesperson from Durham Constabulary kept stressing they still punish people for cannabis-related offences, the focus is on the gangs who supply the drugs rather than the users who buy them.

They said: "Cannabis is an illegal drug and anyone caught smoking it in public in County Durham and Darlington can expect to face arrest by our officers.

"However, our attention is focussed less on low level users and more on disrupting the activities of those Organised Criminal Gangs which profit from the supply of drugs and those dealers who harm our communities."