'Black people give cannabis to babies', Margaret Thatcher aide claimed

Margaret Thatcher's term as Prime Minister coincided with racial disharmony in the Brixton riots
PA
Fiona Simpson30 December 2016
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A senior aide to Margaret Thatcher claimed black people gave cannabis to babies, newly released documents have revealed.

Carolyn Sinclair, senior policy adviser to Mrs Thatcher, made the allegation in a memo she wrote in July 1989, which has now been released by the National Archives in Kew.

Ms Sinclair, who later led a Government group promoting racial equality, said the drug was “part of life” for black people.

She wrote: “Afro-Caribbeans rarely take ‘hard’ drugs such as heroin, but regard cannabis as part of life. It is given to babies.

“The fact that cannabis is illegal is widely regarded as unjust. Most Afro-Caribbeans do not think that they, as a group, have a drug problem.”

The comments, discovered filed with the minutes of a meeting between then home secretary Douglas Hurd and ministerial colleagues, were relayed to Ms Thatcher amid fears of a so-called crack-epidemic.

Ministers debated launching a campaign against crack cocaine but feared backlash if they were seen to be targeting Afro-Caribbean communities.

Ms Sinclair wrote: “But there are good reasons to fear that ‘crack’ will get a hold on Afro-Caribbeans in a way that other hard drugs have not.

New documents: The comments were made in a memo which was relayed to the Prime Minister 
PA Wire

“Jamaicans are heavily involved in running the ‘crack’ trade in the USA, and it would be amazing if knowledge was not passed on to Jamaicans living here.

“And there are sizeable Afro-Caribbean communities in most of the districts where ‘crack’ use has been discovered so far.”

The memo was stored in the National Archives file which spanned 1989 – 1990 - just years after the infamous Brixton riots in 1981.

Ms Sinclair had pushed for the prime minister to launch a drug education programme in schools during the last few years of Mrs Thatcher’s government.

She cited a survey which suggested 26 per cent of 16-year-olds in London had used heroin, cocaine, cannabis or glue, the Times reported.

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