Ann Widdecombe slams Sadiq Khan for cannabis comments

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s call for the legalisation of cannabis in the UK received several critics by Home Secretary Priti Patel, who said “[Mr Khan’s time] would be better spent focusing on knife and drug crime in London as [drugs] ruin communities and tear apart families”. In light of the claims, former Conservative Minister Ann Widdecombe showed support to Ms Patel’s stance and said “[Mr Khan] is not a young hippy for heaven’s sake” and the plan “doesn’t make him look foolish”. Ms Widdecombe urged the London Mayor to embrace a “zero-tolerance approach” on cannabis instead as done by former Mayor of New York City Ruby Giuliani, as otherwise “drug deals will continue to go on”, she warned.

Ms Widdecombe said: “He’s not a young hippy for heaven’s sake.

“I can’t even begin to work out the motivation for that sort of nonsense.

“He’s supposed to be a responsible man.

“He should know the damage that drugs can do, so I don’t know why he’s doing this but it doesn’t make him look cool.

“It makes him look extremely foolish.

She also added: “When soft drug use goes up so does hard drug use.

“The second this is we all know that a certain percentage of people who begin off on cannabis end up on very serious hard drugs, and if you legalise cannabis then more people will try it because there’s no barrier of illegality.

“So this is an appalling proposition and Priti Patel is right, as it does tear families apart and it does ruin lives.

“This country has had its head in the sand over this, we’ve never had a proper war on drugs.

“If you look at what Rudy Giuliani did in New York when he had total zero tolerance on drugs and cleaned up the city massively.

“This is what Sadiq Khan should be doing, he should be taking a leaf out of Rudy Giuliani’s book.

“[Mr Khan] is just acting in a zombie-like fashion because if you actually look at what he’s doing it’s not good for Londoners at all and quite pointless anyway.”

Speaking to GB News presenter Dan Wootton, she said: “You see the drug deals going on and you see what’s happening, but I bet you also several times see police cars just going straight past and doing nothing.

“And until we got that zero tolerance approach, until the police take on drug dealers and drug pushers as they did in New York and don’t turn a blind eye on it, then I’m afraid it’s going to go on”.

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The claims follow Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s initiative to legalise cannabis in the UK after a visit paid by the Mayor at a cannabis dispensary in the US state of California being described as “fascinating”.

Following the cannabis legalisation call, a drug commission looking at whether to decriminalise cannabis in the UK has been set up by Mr Khan.

Mr Khan said: “We need to have an honest, open conversation about the evidence in relation to the history of cannabis and our laws in the UK and our experience of the health consequences in relation to crime and the community.

“The best way to do that will be with the drugs commission we’ve now set up”.

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