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British Somalis dread ‘herbal high’ khat ban

The group advised against banning khat, noting that in health terms, there was little evidence of risks other than a small number of reports associating it with liver disease.

“If you’re not banning it because of science, then why are you banning it?” said Ali Osman, 36.

He urged interior minister Theresa May to try khat herself, “then she can ban it if she still wants to”.

— ‘Family breakdown’ —

Announcing the proposed ban on khat in July, the minister said Britain risked becoming a hub for smuggling to countries where khat is banned, such as in most of northern Europe.

She cited its role in “health and social harms, such as low attainment and family breakdown”.

Social worker Abdi Mohamed says he sometimes works with khat abuse cases, including neglected children and men distanced from their families by too much time at the mafrish.

But he also encounters families affected by alcohol and cannabis.

“We try to find out what the underlying problem is. The problem is not with the miraa, it’s with the person,” he said.

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Khat is not physically addictive, but some chewers become psychologically hooked.

Abukar Awale became Britain’s leading Somali anti-khat campaigner after battling his own habit.

“I was vulnerable, I was mentally wounded, I thought everyone was looking down on me. I went through hell,” he told AFP.

“I would chew from four in the afternoon, all night long, and wake up wanting to chew again.”

Awale believes khat is “the biggest barrier to integration for the Somali community”.

Somalis are among the poorest of Britain’s immigrant groups, with high unemployment. Many fled the civil war which has ravaged the country since 1991.

The khat ban may criminalise some of them, with predictions that drug gangs will take up the trade.

At his warehouse, Mohamed says: “When you struggle, you started from nowhere to become somebody, and your business is closed down, you won’t feel good.

“But I don’t think only of miraa. This is a good country, I’m safe here, I have freedom. This is my home.”

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