Downing Street said that Sadiq Khan was wasting his time by promising to launch a review into the possibility of decriminalising cannabis if he’s re-elected as Mayor of London on May 6.
Sadiq Khan has pledged to establish a new commission to examine the use of drugs in the metropolis if he wins the contest next month, but Number 10 said that policy on controlled drugs is a matter for UK Government and Boris Johnson has no intention of legalising cannabis which is a dangerous substance.
In the meantime, one of Sadiq Khan’s political opponents in the race for City Hall, Tory candidate Shaun Bailey, said legalising cannabis is nowhere in the remit of the Mayor of London and his counterpart should concentrate on his actual job.
The Labour incumbent has promised to start the group of independent experts for fresh ideas if he wins a new mandate in the May 6 election, and experts from areas including criminal justice, community relations and public health, will examine evidence on the harms of drugs, support services and prevention, the effectiveness of prevailing laws as well as tackling the root causes of crime.
It would be expected to report to the Mayor with policy proposals including for City Hall, the police, health services and central Government, and a newspaper outlet reported that according to a source close to the mayor, Sadiq Khan would be prepared to consider supporting reforms to the legal status of cannabis if that was the view of the commission.
The Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Allegra Stratton said of the proposed review that policy on controlled drugs was a matter for UK Government and there were no plans to devolve that responsibility and that the Prime Minister had talked about this on numerous occasions.
And it was said that illegal drugs damage lives and that the Prime Minister had no intention of sanctioning cannabis which is a dangerous substance.
Asked if the Prime Minister would back Sadiq Khan’s review, Allegra Stratton said that he would not and that his approach would not be changing.
Asked if she thought Sadiq Khan was therefore wasting his time by promising a review, Allegra Stratton said this was correct, and that Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London would know that the policy of controlled drugs is a matter for the UK Government and that it was not a matter for his office.
Sadly, it will be people’s money that will be wasted and that this is for his election, there’s no other reason why he would say that he will review it, and it’s entirely outside of his powers to act on this.
And to be fair you’d need to be on something a lot stronger than Cannabis to consider voting Tory any time soon, and Sadiq Khan is an expensive ineffectual mayor.
But then should Cannabis be decriminalised, regulated and taxed? Because there appears to have been zero deaths from Cannabis, but you can legally overdose and enjoy your highly addictive alcohol – chin chin everyone!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 