Sadiq Khan Plans To Decriminalise Cannabis Drugs In London

It has been reported that the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is planning a pilot scheme on decriminalising Class B drugs in three London boroughs, which is Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. The plan involves anyone from the age of 18 to 24 caught with small amounts of cannabis to be redirected to services for education or counselling, rather than facing charges or an arrest. According to Sadiq Khan himself, the plan “does not go far enough”, as he plans to end the prosecution of young people being caught.

This plan has been met with a lot of backlashes from members of the Conservative party; and may also be opposed by the Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer, who previously has said that he is not in favour of decriminalising drugs in England. On the other hand, experts from the fields of criminal justice and public health have responded positively to the plan, although Professor Alex Stevens, who is a professor of criminal justice at the University of Kent, has called the Mayor of London to be too ambitious with his propositions.

He said, “I’m in favour of policies that reduce the harms that criminalising people for possession does, but this particular policy seems a bit odd. There are already policies in place that enable the police to reduce those harms by not giving criminal records to people for cannabis possession. So, I am interested to hear what more this proposal does. I don’t think it goes far enough. I think the Government should follow the advice of the Health and Social Care Committee and the Royal Society of Public Health, which is that drug possession in small quantities should be no longer be a criminal offence.”

He concluded by saying that a lot of the opposition to this scheme was “based on fear of what drugs can do”, however, there is “very little evidence that decriminalisation increases drug use and drug-related harms”.

If you would like to find out more about this scheme, follow Sadiq Khan on Twitter for the latest updates.