15 Jun 2008, 12:31PM
"It's pure arrogance that we are busy to ban everybody else's drugs, but our own main drug of choice is industrialised and promoted around the world, regardless of its harmful effects.
I've chewed khat with a group of Somali men, of which there is a large population not for from where I live in Manchester. Their social activity is to sit around in a circle, chew and chat furiously as the drug gives a greater fluency of their expression. The effects are mild compared to many drugs and consequently the after effects are also slight. It could be easily said that Europeans drink all night and the next day they are useless at work; certainly in my experience a hangover from booze is far more debilitating than anything khat can do.
Picking on a minority group and banning aspects of their social life is gutless and typical of politicians. If your policy ideas had any coherence, you'd be banning cigarettes & alcohol, but power is always more seductive to politicians than logic or common sense."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... cy.somalia