London, May 20 (IANS) Rolling Stones rocker Sir Mick Jagger is calling for government officials to legalise marijuana on a British island to see if it prevents drug-related violence.

The singer, who was convicted of possessing narcotics in the 1960s, insists youngsters will always experiment with substances, despite the risk of negative side effects. He is now urging officials to legalise cannabis on the Isle of Man, a British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea, for a limited time, to test the consequences of an end to drug prohibition, reports contactmusic.com.

"The whole question of legalising drugs is fraught... You usually try these things out in very small places... You know, like you try a new product out in a small kind of society or an island somewhere. And in England they always try out new mobile phones (cell phones) in (the) Isle of Man. They've got a captive society. So I said, you should try the legalisation of all drugs on the Isle of Man and see what happens," Jagger said.

"Human beings seem to have a propensity to want to take drugs in some form... It seems to be the propensity of human beings to want to use them... I think you have to take that as read, you know."

"But then what do you do when it affects so many people's lives, and not in a good way. And then also you get a lot of violence at both ends of the scope. So you get violence in some countries... which, like, we have in Mexico now, and you get violence at the other end of people trying to obtain drugs. That's the part that speaks to some sort of legalisation. Because that, you would hope, would help the violence from both ends of the supply line," he added.