London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has been branded "completely dopey" after backing calls to decriminalise possession of small amounts of natural cannabis.Speaking to GB News, Conservative London Assembly Member Susan Hall called the move "ridiculous" and claimed the Mayor is "tinkering around the edges" of tackling crime in the city.FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00So, is this idea a bit dopey?
00:03Yes, completely dopey. Ridiculous.
00:07I mean, it's typical of Sadiq Khan.
00:09If you talk to the commissioner, Samart Rowley, he hasn't asked for this.
00:13He's asking for more money so he can try and get some sort of order on our streets.
00:18This is utterly ridiculous.
00:20And I think the commission has cost over a quarter of a million pounds.
00:24That money could have gone into the policing service in London.
00:28Now, Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, would say there's a huge amount of time and energy and policing,
00:35manpower wasted on small offences such as small amounts of cannabis.
00:42I mean, you know as well as I do, Susan, even outside Parliament, outside here,
00:46the stench of weed is always on the streets of London, as indeed it is in many cities and towns across the country.
00:54Is this a sensible thing or do you worry?
00:57Actually, there are other things to worry about, stepping as a gateway drug towards harder stuff.
01:01And perhaps even we have huge mental health issues on the streets of every city in Britain now.
01:07Yes, and that's exactly the point, isn't it?
01:10I mean, this is tinkering at the edges.
01:13It's about 350 pages, this report.
01:16And it says that small amounts should be allowed, but you're not allowed to sell it.
01:23Well, if a police officer stops somebody and they've got an amount of, a smallish amount,
01:28but an amount of drugs with them, how does that police officer know if that person is going to sell it
01:35or whether they're using it for their own use?
01:37I mean, at the end of the day, if you look at knife crime, which is rife,
01:41a third of all knife crime in the country, in England and Wales, is in London.
01:46We need to be concentrating on things that are actually a real harm to Londoners,
01:52not tinkering around the edges for, oh, it's just press he wants, really.
01:57He is a ridiculous man.
01:59But Susan Hall, he might say, and a lot of people say, you know,
02:02more people die of booze and driving cars.
02:07What's wrong just with having a smoke so long as you're not selling it,
02:12you're not dealing it, you're just partaking of the old puffer home.
02:15What's the problem?
02:17Well, the commissioner will tell you it increases crimes like shoplifting and burglary.
02:25There's real connections to it, whereas there isn't with alcohol.
02:28If you look at county lines where kids are getting into real trouble, it's all over drugs.
02:33And they do say that the softer drugs lead to harder drugs.
02:36We all know where that goes.
02:38So if the government wants to look at a complete look at the whole thing,
02:43but what Sadiq Khan is suggesting here is total nonsense.
02:48OK, thanks for your input.
02:49We have to leave it there.
02:50Conservative of London Assembly member Susan Hall.