If Lord Sewel were Black!

Lord Sewel was caught in drugs and sex sting that saw his glittering political career implode.

I've heard that some peers have claimed he has ' brought the Lords into disrepute' and when I heard that I laughed so much I fell off my chair. The House of Lords is disreputable by definition as it sits as an unelected second chamber with members being paid £300 of tax payer’s money for turning up for two minutes a day.

What is more interesting is the police, the media and public’s response to this aged man’s dalliance with a couple of prostitutes.

It is the too often double standards of this country I cannot stand and this case provides an interesting commentary on how law, order and justice are applied to different ethnic groups with different emphasis.

Lord Sewel has not been arrested as far as I know and his only punishment has been to resign as a peer. This complete hypocrisy in Britain’s application of drugs laws riles and angers me.

Contrast the way in Sewell was treated with the handling of black youth on London streets suspected of possession of drugs.

The difference could not be starker. The fact is we are treated differently by the police and the media. The single highest reason police officers give for instigating ‘Stop and Search’ on black youth is ‘suspicion’ of possession of drugs, namely cannabis.

Research by the drugs charity Release has shown if caught in possession, black youth are 50% more likely than white youngsters to be sent to court rather than given a caution. For cocaine, it’s 70% more likely even when the white offender has a longer criminal or drug history.

We see areas like Coldharbour Lane in Brixton or other areas of London raided by police time and time again.

We rarely see raids on celebrities’ homes, or the clubs, restaurants and bars  in London's West End where drug abuse is rife. Of course, when the press ‘fits someone up’ you see some police action in response, but that’s it. Compare that to black areas which are raided weekly. Speak to the Black club owners forced out of business because they face constant police intervention and harassment.

The message is clear: It’s ok for white people to do drugs, but let a young black boy do similar with cannabis and the whole world descends on his head.

Given that we learned today that the House of Commons’ internet is used to visit porno sites over a thousand times a day, maybe it's MPs and Lords who should be raided, stopped and searched.

Drug laws in this country are a joke and are being used to unfairly criminalise black youth whilst drug taking upper classes are given a free pass by the police to fill their boots.

There’s probably more drug abuse at music festivals and in the West End, Mayfair and Chelsea than all of the other areas of London put together, and yet the policing they receive contrasts sharply with the brutality against young black boys who might have a little bit of weed.

It’s drug enforcement apartheid and the so called 'war on drugs' is nothing more than a war on black people.

Lee Jasper