 Alex Miller, a journalist from the Montreal, Canada-based magazine and television channel Vice, looked into the use of the substance and the potential impact of the ban for BBC nightly current affairs programme Newsnight and for a Vice documentary.Kenyan MPs appealed to the UK not to "condemn people" by banning the herbal stimulant khat

In March 2014, the United Kingdom House of Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee announced that it would continue to lobby for the UK government not to go through with its intended ban on khat.The committee had shortly before also completed an inquiry and a report recommending that the British authorities refrain from banning the plant.