Almost 10,000 people received specialist treatment for drug, alcohol and other substance abuse problems in the first three months of the year — including 18 children and teens.

Two GPs who treat young people for drug addiction believe cannabis use should be decriminalised for both recreational and medicinal use and regulated rather than outlawed.

Legalising cannabis and opening Amsterdam-style coffee shops all over the country could be worth up to €300m for the Exchequer and would take millions away from criminal gangs such as those which murdered crime journalist Veronica Guerin, Independent TD Luke “Ming” Flanagan claimed yesterday.

A politician has called for cannabis coffee shops and social clubs to be allowed under his radical attempt to decriminalise the drug.