A CAF owner has defended his decision to open an Amsterdam-style coffee shop that promotes the use of cannabis.

Haschischin has opened above Global Video, in Front Street, Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

A cannabis leaf is emblazoned on a poster advertising the business, which says the venue is "a tribute to the world's most versatile plant".

Inside, it offers coffees and cakes, and leaflets on the medicinal use of cannabis.

Owner Peter Watson said: "It is as near to a Dutch-style coffee shop as you will get in this country. It has got all the flavour of what you find in Amsterdam, but we are not selling cannabis.

"We are not doing anything illegal, we are just passing on information about the medicinal use of cannabis.

"We have been open for two weeks now and I have been surprised with the reaction. People who have actually come in have had a remarkably enlightened attitude."

North Durham MP Kevan Jones said: "While I have some sympathy for people who take cannabis for medicinal reasons, the best way to do that is in pill form, not by smoking it.

"My constituency has a severe problem with drugs, which wreck many young lives.

"The last thing we need is something promoting this as a glamorous lifestyle."

Chester-le-Street District Council said it was powerless to intervene.

Council planning manager Tom Watson said: "This didn't require planning permission because it was already a cafe before the new owner moved in.

"As far as planning law is concerned, a cake is a cake, whether it contains cannabis or cherries."

The cafe is open between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Thursday, and until 8pm on Friday and Saturday nights.

Mr Watson said that, if it continued to be a success, he would consider opening on Sundays.

Its name alludes to the Hashishin, a medieval Arabic cult that produced the world's first suicide terrorists, and from whom the modern term assassin is derived.