AN Ilkley magistrate has received the backing of the town's MP in his fight to get a change in drugs laws.

Labour backbencher Ann Cryer, a JP herself for many years, has been helping Roger Davy in his campaign to get cannabis reclassified.

Mr Davy and Mrs Cryer believe that the downgrading of cannabis from a Class B drug to Class C has been sending out the wrong message to youngsters who act as if it is almost legal.

Mrs Cryer said: "I think there are many parents and grandparents in Ilkley who won't have a clue about this."

Mr Davy and a fellow magistrate Tom Weston, from Amersham in Buckingham-shire, travelled to London to meet Vernon Coaker, a Home Office Under Secretary in charge of the Government's drug strategy.

The meeting was arranged by Mrs Cryer who said it was a useful exercise for the parties to get together.

Mrs Cryer said: "I learned a great deal from listening to Roger Davy and his colleague. The really frightening thing about this is that people are talking about cannabis as if it is legal. Which of course it isn't.

"Apparently there are all sorts of different qualities - some much stronger ones. Mr Davy thinks it is having a very severe impact on children as young as 12, which can have a long term effect on their behaviour.

"Because of it being downgraded people are thinking there is no danger. We do have to protect young people - that is my concern. I have nine grandchildren, the eldest is 14. I have worries as a grandmother - I am concerned about it."

Mr Davy, who received an MBE in the New Year's honours list, said that he did not expect action from the Government straight away.

He said: "In the youth courts we see a lot of youngsters charged with theft and robberies - youngsters are doing that to fund their drugs habit.

"The reclassification is sending out the wrong message to a lot of youngsters. It is a huge problem. We were just following it up.

"It has got the support of the whole Magistrates' Association. It is showing our concern and raising the profile of our worries about it.

"I wrote to Ann Cryer about the problem - she used to be a magistrate - and she set up the meeting.

"We were listened to very sympathetically. I don't expect things to change overnight - there are enough problems at the Home office at the moment. But it is raising our concerns."

Mr Davy and Mr Weston are also trying to set up a meeting with David Davis the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary to discuss the issue with him as well.

Mr Davy has been a magistrate for 33 years in the Bradford and West Yorkshire Circuit, and is chairman of the Youth Court. He said that he saw cannabis as a gateway into other drugs.

He said: "The wrong message has gone out to young people who think that nothing is going to happen to them if they use cannabis. Because it has been downgraded they think it is less important.

"Many children we see in court, and many we don't, believe cannabis use is now legal and nothing will happen to them if they are found in possession."

He said that cannabis related crime had soared since it had been reclassified by Home Secretary David Blunkett in 2004.