After the disastrous election result for the Lib Dems, they could have vanished in a puff of smoke. But no: they are back now setting up an expert panel to try to establish how a legal market for cannabis would work. They are looking at becoming the first party in the UK to back its legalisation.

Landlords across the Lothians have been warned to be on the look-out for cannabis farms after a spike in the number of cases in the region.

Officers have pledged to hold a series of special seminars to tell property owners about the warning signs.

Between April and August this year, 49 cannabis operations worth tens of thousands of pounds have been recovered in Lothian and Borders.

The plants are often seized from rented properties which have been drastically altered or damaged to help growing conditions, and owners are often landed with large repair bills after the cultivations are uncovered.

Recent incidents include the discovery of a cannabis farm with plants with a street value of £64,800 in the loft of the Tiki Tots nursery in Morningside in April.

Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem health spokesman, has asked the review to look at international examples of where cannabis has been legalised, including in Colorado, Washington and Uruguay.

Mr Lamb argued it was time to stop cannabis convictions “blighting” people’s careers.

“We must end the hypocrisy of senior politicians admitting to using cannabis in younger years – and describing it as ‘youthful indiscretions’ – whilst condemning tens of thousands of their less fortunate fellow countrymen and women to criminal records for precisely the same thing, blighting their careers,” he said.

People in east Newcastle have come out the most strongly in the North East in favour of legalising cannabis.

More than 220,000 people have signed a petition calling on the government to legalise the drug, saying it could bring in £900m in tax revenue and create 10,000 jobs.

Parliament is due to debate whether to legalise marijuana on Monday.

Exclusive analysis by the Chronicle shows that 556 people from Newcastle upon TyneEast have signed the petition.

This means about one person in every 178 has signed the petition from the constituency.

This is the highest proportion of people putting their names to the bid anywhere in the North East.

Prohibition builds empires of criminals and outlaws the world's most ancient medicine, writes Labour MP Paul Flynn

A Leek man is calling upon the Government to make medicinal Cannabis legal.

Jacob Barrow was born with a Diaphragmatic-Hernia which resulted in the need for immediate life saving surgery to correct his internal problems.

Following a series of problems he has found that medical Cannabis is his best option for a pain-free life.

Now he is calling on the Government, which will be debating the issue in the House of Commons on Monday, October 12, to make Cannabis legal for medicinal purposes.

Mr Barrow, who was born and raised in Leek, said: "Six months after being born my scarring, which initially stretched around my abdomen spine to spine, ruptured and I needed further corrective surgery.