Take That star Howard Donald has called for the legalisation of cannabis, suggesting the country would be a lot less violent if people smoked the drug rather than drank alcohol.

He said recently: “Cannabis should be legalised.”

“I know it’s a touchy subject. But if more people went out stoned than drunk — which a lot of people are on the weekend — I think there would be less fighting, less trouble and less violence.”

He added that the former boy band frequently “dabbled” with drugs when they were first starting out together in the early 1990s: “We dabbled with Ecstasy and liked the odd spliff, but who doesn’t?”