UK Bans Khat (Herb Safer Than Tobacco)

It is not often that we get wind of judicial idiocy and lunacy regarding the drug war from outside of the United States. Any US citizen can likely name a few moronic moments from within our borders. There seems to be a sense that, while other countries have their own failed drug war issues, Americans have the monopoly on boneheaded laws, right? Sure, this is no doubt evincing my provincial perspective. Being an American, I most often see American media. But still, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to believe that we do prohibition fuck-ups better than then rest of the globe.

Well, Britain just couldn’t let us have that claim to fame all to ourselves. The UK government recently scheduled khat as a class C controlled substance, making it illegal to possess, grow or use. For some background, khat, a plant native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula, is a mild stimulant with a lesser physiological dependence rating than tobacco or alcohol. To boot, it had been legally imported and sold in the UK for more than 60 years without incident. In case you’re curious, yes, khat is already illegal in the United States.

Now, seemingly arbitrarily, khat can get you arrested.

“The impact will be felt largely among the Somali, Yemeni and Ethiopian communities, but we should all be concerned. For as 25 countries loosen drug laws and evidence grows from around the globe of the harm caused by prohibition in terms of lives lost and communities wrecked, this shows again how Britain is locked into a futile and backfiring battle that flies in the face of evidence, human rights and logic. The decision to outlaw khat was taken last year by Theresa May, the home secretary. She ignored her own advisers on drug misuse who told her that it would be “inappropriate and disproportionate” to ban an innocuous trade that earns the Treasury a couple of million pounds a year in taxes. She brushed aside concerns from the Commons home affairs select committee, which concluded that it would make more sense to license importers than drive them underground.”

I didn’t realize that the UK home secretary and our own local FDA officials attended the same weekend seminar called “WTF Do Advisors Know?” Newly FDA-approved pain narcotic Zohydro (pillified heroin) was also met with reservations from a board of advisers and was summarily ignored.

The global failure of prohibition should be a lighthouse for future drug policy talks. Rather, the UK officials seem content to keep trying to jam the square peg into the triangle hole. It has been shown time after time that prohibition, more than the drugs themselves, are what engenders black markets, gang syndicates and an out of control prison complex. Worse still, this khat ban carries with it a nasty bigotry.

“What will happen now? No doubt some people will stop chewing khat. Most traders in a thriving £15m-a-year sector will close down successful businesses, forcing scores of staff into unemployment. But others may carry on trading, joining the inevitable black market that springs up when something is banned. In the United States, where khat is already a controlled substance, it sells for 10 times its price on British streets; clearly, there will be hefty profits for any criminal gangs stepping in to meet demand. As some MPs and community leaders have pointed out, asking the police to enforce a ban that only affects specific ethnic minorities also risks damaging race relations. There is a grave danger that outlawing khat risks further alienating sections of the Somali and Yemeni communities, already among the most marginalised groups in Britain and coming under increased pressure amid alarm over Islamic militancy.”

And, in contrast to the message many of us heard growing up during prohibition, it is the prohibition of a substance than funds terrorism, rather than the use of the substance.

“There were claims of links between the khat trade and terrorism, but these seem tenuous. After all, al-Shabaab also bans its usage while the government’s own drug experts have repeatedly said there is no evidence of criminal or terrorist involvement. They added, however, that they feared this might change following a ban; terror gangs have raised millions elsewhere in Africa by exploiting the drug market. Such is the stupidity of Britain’s latest salvo in the silly war on drugs. This will cost the country cash, put people out of work, increase communal tensions and may even help fund terrorism. One thing is sure: it will not terminate use of the banned substance.”

While it’s nice to not be the only jagweed standing in the prohibition winner’s circle (thanks UK!), I would still rather just have a globe that reacted appropriately to drugs. A war on narcotics is fundamentally flawed. Drugs are not an enemy force with a unified agenda, you can never blow up enough stuff or shoot enough people to “beat” drugs. Drugs have pervaded human culture since our inception. Until humanity starts to love sobriety, intoxicants and addictions are here to stay.