Cannabis café owner jailed for three years

The owner of Britain's first Amsterdam-style coffee shop was jailed for three years yesterday by a judge who said he had threatened the proposed liberalisation of the drug.

Judge Stuart Fish said Colin Davies, 44, who had argued his use of the drug was medicinal, had damaged "the respect that there might have been for the genuinely held belief of the British Medical Association's recommendation that cannabis might be made available for clinical use".

Davies hung his head as he was sentenced in Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court on eight charges – including supplying and importing drugs – relating to his Dutch Experience café, in Stockport, Manchester.

He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to charges on which he had been expected to stand trial later this year. He has already served nine months in jail since his arrest. Davies' father, also called Colin,was acquitted of perjury and perverting the course of justice.