Spectator<\/em>\u00a0readers, I don\u2019t know. But either way, it hardly seems worth clamouring for decriminalisation, when in effect we\u2019ve already got it.<\/p>\nEven so, Mr Khan has backed calls to change the law. And these calls seem to have something to do with race.<\/p>\n
According to an independent commission, set up by the Mayor, the policing of cannabis use is shamefully unjust to people who aren\u2019t white. In a new report, the commission says: \u201cThe law with respect to cannabis possession is experienced disproportionately by those from ethnic minority (excluding white minority) groups, particularly London\u2019s black communities. While more likely to be stopped and searched by police on suspicion of cannabis possession than white people, black Londoners are no more likely to be found carrying the drug.\u201d<\/p>\n
If so, that plainly is unfair. But it\u2019s not an argument for decriminalisation. It\u2019s an argument for stopping and searching greater numbers of white people. Which, of course, would be completely fine. Go right ahead. Even if today\u2019s over-anxious police chiefs would probably misunderstand such an edict, and tell their officers: \u201cWhen investigating crime, we must never treat any community with more suspicion than any other. Which is why, this afternoon, I\u2019m sending you all to a WI jumble sale, to search little old ladies for machetes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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None the less, the report maintains that the way forward is to decriminalise possession. At the same time, though, it says producing and dealing should remain illegal. Which is odd, because it implies that the blame for the trade lies solely with the people doing the latter. But if it weren\u2019t for all the people wishing to possess the drug, no one would produce or deal it. Ultimately, therefore, it\u2019s their fault.<\/p>\n
Anyway, if possession does get decriminalised, you can bet there\u2019ll soon be calls to loosen the law further. Which would be even more unwise. Just look at what\u2019s happened to New York, which in 2021 decided not only that people should be allowed to smoke cannabis, but that shops should be granted licences to sell it. Has this put criminals out of business, while raising lots of lovely extra cash through tax?<\/p>\n
Funnily enough, no. Illegal vendors simply undercut the legal ones. Kathy Hochul, who is New York\u2019s governor (and a Democrat, rather than some stereotypically stuffy Republican), has called it \u201ca disaster\u201d. Even\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>, proud tribune of liberal America,\u00a0ran a dismayed article asking: \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\nAll the same, the Mayor of London insists that his commission\u2019s report makes a \u201ccompelling\u201d case. I don\u2019t think it does. And I especially think we could have done without the irrelevant wittering about ethnicity. We\u2019ve got quite enough \u201ccommunity tensions\u201d in this country as it is. So we certainly don\u2019t want people thinking: \u201cWhat? They want to allow possession of a dangerous drug, just because they think it will improve \u2018police relations\u2019 with \u2018black communities\u2019? That sounds awfully like special treatment. Mind you, I suppose they need to free up the cells, to make more space for\u00a0middle-aged women who post problematic opinions on the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
This, in short, is why Mr Khan\u2019s plan for cannabis isn\u2019t just naive. It\u2019s dangerously divisive.<\/p>\n
I note, incidentally, that the Mayor has just proposed a\u00a020 per cent rise in London\u2019s congestion charge. But don\u2019t worry. I\u2019ve prepared a report arguing that the charge is unjust, because it\u2019s experienced disproportionately by the motoring community, while the cycling and walking communities get off scot-free. So the whole thing should be scrapped.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: (Via Drugwatch International): www.telegraph.co.uk<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Michael Deacon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columnist & Assistant Editor\u00a0 – The Telegraph of London (UK)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 28 May 2025 The Mayor of London has called for law reform because he believes that stop-and-search powers disproportionately affect black communities Mayor of London Sadiq Khan walking through cannabis plants at a licensed factory in Los Angeles\u00a0Credit: PA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,129,68,64,60,128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cannabis-marijuana","category-culture","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-health","category-marijuana-and-medicine","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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