Thursday 4 July 2013

Bring Back The Qat?

From the sublime of dysfunctional energy policy to the ridiculous of banning Qat.  Raedwald has a tongue-in-cheek take in support of this, and I'll offer another perspective.

Readers may recall I was once heavily involved in local government politics, and still engage across a fairly wide spectrum of local-government type issues.  As such I get to meet a lot of members of 'di communidee' - well, several 'communities' - and hear all sorts of stuff that middle-class folk don't necessarily encounter day-to-day.  

The Somali 'community' has long seen the Qat ban coming: and the womenfolk in particular are appalled.  They say - and who knows better? - that it is only the Qat that keeps their menfolk from making their lives intolerable.  By inference, if they are right, one could imagine that intolerable behaviours may well extend in other directions too.

If there is any serious attempt to enforce this ban (on which score which one may legitimately be skeptical) I expect we shall all find out.

ND

8 comments:

DtP said...

TBF - banning it would make sod all difference. It's importation is illicit, its use unregulated or enforced and its users largely off balance sheet anyway.

I did a stint as a drugs analyst for about 7 years with the Rozzers and the National Treatment Agency and it really is quite surprising how little smack, crack & any other thing you care to mention is largely tolerated by Chief Supers who know a thing or two about their patches. I walk past a crack dealers pad every morning - been there for at least a year directly across from the local technical college and no one gives a toss as it's rightly seen as a localised dimension that can be monitored and policed from a distance.

The NTA is a joke of an organisation by the way but I guess that's stating the bleedin' obvious. Ho hum.

Elby the Beserk said...

Raedwald's funny on this.

http://raedwald.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/why-i-support-qat-ban.html

From the Guardian;

"They are always talking about a ban," said one Somali man in his 20s, who chewed qat from a blue plastic bag while sitting on a table where paperwork recorded the day's deliveries. "But if they ban it, I will go back to my home country," he said.

Electro-Kevin said...

The US Rangers and Delta forces got a spanking from these chaps. They could be something to be reckoned with here too - they already are if you are an opposing postcode gangster.

The politicians who brought this upon us aren't stupid. It was all done quite deliberately.

The Qat in the Manger said...

So when can we expect the establishment of the Qat Quota Qango?

Blue Eyes said...

Dunno, I am quite liberal and responsibility minded. I don't think I would like the stuff and I'm too old to try new drugs. I have heard the diametrically opposing argument, ND, that Somali men apparently sometimes beat their wives when sky high on qat/khat. I have a simpler solution than banning it for everyone, but what do I know that Saint Theresa does not?!

cours informatique said...

"" From the sublime of dysfunctional energy policy to the ridiculous of banning Qat. Raedwald has a tongue-in-cheek take in support of this, and I'll offer another perspective.

Readers may recall I was once heavily involved in local government politics, and still engage across a fairly wide spectrum of local-government type issues. As such I get to meet a lot of members of 'di communidee' - well, several 'communities' - and hear all sorts of stuff that middle-class folk don't necessarily encounter day-to-day. ""

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