Cannabis cafe closes

All customers were instructed to stub out their cigarettes for a final time last week as controversial cannabis café in Lancing in Adur, West Sussex, was shut down.

Reminiscent of laid-back Amsterdam, in which such cafes abound, the outfit has regularly whipped up a storm of fierce controversy in the sleepy Sussex backwater.

The café on Freshbrook Road was raided a total of seven times by police and yet the illegally fortified building survived. It even succeeded in standing up against a particularly violent police raid in which two-tonne tractors were used to demolish a wall and window, only to be closed down a few days ago under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The final siege was carried out on 28 April, two days before the closing of the café, when officers stormed in, sealed off, and searched the building in a hunt for illegal drugs trading.

It was reported last July that crime had increased by 200% since the opening of the cannabis café a year and a half earlier. The Adur police reported an increase in drug-related crimes and anti-social behaviour on the town’s streets which they believe were due to the café’s habitual sale and supply of controlled drugs.

Hot on the heels of Britain’s nationwide smoking ban last summer, the closing of the cannabis café marks another departure away from liberalism for which the British government is currently renowned.