North Wales Police Authority has backed a review of drug laws after its chief constable urged legalisation.
Richard Brunstrom asked the authority to back his calls to scrap current laws, legalise most drugs and bring in a new system to control them.
While it agreed to support the report – to go to the Home Secretary as part of UK-wide consultation – it did not say current laws should be scrapped.
A senior police officers’ body called legalisation “a counsel of despair”.
Mr Brunstrom called the fight against drugs unwinnable but said he did not want “an anarchic free-for-all”.
He said there was a battle with “the flat earthers” who refused to look at the evidence suggesting drugs laws need a radical change.
The chief constable said his report was not a “crusade or proactive – it is a response based on a degree of radicalism”.
The authority agreed that his report should go to the UK Government and the Welsh Assembly Government, which is about to conduct its own drugs consultation.
It also said there should be a review of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, with the possible replacement of a Misuse of Substances Act regulating all drugs, including nicotine and alcohol based on a new hierarchy of harm.
The authority further agreed to consider affiliation with the lobby group Transform Drug Policy Foundation.
Before the meeting, Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood told BBC Wales’ Politics Show that Mr Brunstrom was right to raise the issue.
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