Khat and mouse

OUTSIDE a newsagent’s shop in the Clapham Road, a south London thoroughfare, a man sucks on a rolled-up cigarette and asks passers-by whether they want to buy some cannabis. But shoppers seem more interested in khat, a mild narcotic popular with Ethiopians, Somalis and Yemenis. Inside, the shopkeeper pulls out bundles of the yellowish leaf and explains that it is the last batch he will sell. “After tomorrow, they stop, no more,” he says.

On June 24th the sale of khat was prohibited in Britain, almost a year after Theresa May, the home secretary, told the House of Commons that she intended to ban it. The government argues that since the leaf has been banned elsewhere, Britain risks turning into a distribution point if it remains legal; that khat is a dangerous intoxicant that harms its users and that the “marfashes” where men go to chew are breeding radicalism. But both the government’s advisory council on the misuse of drugs and the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee advised against the crackdown.