Black people in this country are stopped & searched for drugs at 9x the rate of white people. Asian people are stopped & searched for drugs at 3x the rate of white people.

Makes sense, right? Communities of colour just use illicit substances more than others.

Eh, not really.

According to the Crime Survey England & Wales, white British people are far more likely to self-report having taken drugs in the last 12 months than Black and Asian people. The only group for whom that's not the case is 'Mixed', but when adjusted for age the rates are similar.

What's more, when it comes to stop & search, the 'find' rate for drugs amongst Black people is lower than it is for white people - suggesting that the grounds for searching Black people are weaker than they are for white people. Basically racial profiling isn't all that accurate.

Reducing the numbers of stop & searches alone doesn't deal with the disproportionate targeting of POC by police.

Discrimination is baked into the practice - which means we de facto have the decriminalisation of drugs for those who are the 'right' race and/or class.

Problematic drug use needs to be treated as a health issue. Communities which have been abandoned to addiction and despair need to be invested in. And drugs need to be decriminalised - because for those who have more social and economic privilege, they may as well already be.

This is an area of policy which Labour have been weak on, and yes even under Corbyn. There has to be an honest conversation about drug use in this country, and an end to the hypocrisy of politicians/journos pushing prohibition for the public while going WILD for it themselves.