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The leader of the Green party, Zack Polanski, has said he has never taken drugs or “even drunk alcohol” in his life, but wants to legalise all drugs and regulate their use.
Polanski was asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme if he had taken drugs at university. “I’ve actually never taken a drug in my life, or even drunk alcohol, but I still don’t sit here as the fun police,” he said. “I very clearly believe people should be able to do what they want to do. It just wasn’t for me.”
He told Kuenssberg that politicians who admitted taking drugs and then advocated for incarcerating drug users were taking a “hypocritical approach”, when a “public health approach” was needed to prevent deaths.
“It’s about legalising and regulating. If someone has a problematic relationship to drugs then surely the answer is to make sure they’re seen by a medical professional who can help them,” Polanski said.
Keir Starmer, who has previously said he “worked hard and played hard” at university in response to questions about whether he used drugs at university, accused the Green party of being “high on drugs, soft on Putin” during prime minister’s questions last Wednesday.
Polanski, a member of the London assembly, said hearing Starmer “making cheap jokes delivered badly” about drug use from the dispatch box was “pretty disgraceful” and that joking about Putin and Russia was also “pretty vile”, especially when he was not in the House of Commons to defend his party.
Illegal drug use was “very racialised”, he said, with innocent young black people far more likely to be stopped and searched for drugs than their white peers. “We’ve had ministers both from the Labour and the Conservative government who have openly said on record that they’ve taken drugs, yet they’re putting in prison people who have taken drugs, and very often, again, it’s disproportionately young black and brown people.”
He initially evaded a question about whether legalising class A drugs – including heroin and cocaine – could send a message to young people that the use of dangerous drugs was OK, telling Kuenssberg: “First of all, we could talk about alcohol, which can sometimes be one of the most dangerous drugs, and actually we need a public health approach to that too.”
When pressed to answer the question, he said: “I think the danger is happening right now, which is where we’re pushing it [dangerous drug use] into street corners and into a black market … The war on drugs is not working. In fact, it’s making drugs more dangerous.
“What we need is a grownup conversation, based on evidence, taking a public health approach that looks at prevention, intervention and makes sure that afterwards, people can get the support they need.”
Asked whether he was teetotal as a matter of principle, he said: “Not at all. I just grew up in school where a lot of my friends were drinking and, in fact, taking drugs. And often it felt like someone needed to be sober.”
Earlier in the interview, he told Kuenssberg that a surprising fact about himself was that he used to breakdance. “I’ve always liked dancing without taking drink or drugs,” he added. “If anyone wants to do it and they’re doing it safely, I’m really glad people are having a good time, but we know lots of people aren’t taking it safely, so let’s make sure they get the support they need.”
