The UK government's official drugs advisory body has rejected calls to ban the herbal stimulant khat.
Somali groups in the UK had told the council that use of khat was a "significant social problem".
The Dutch government cited health concerns as well as social and economic reasons for the prohibition of khat.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said there was "insufficient evidence" that khat caused health problems.
After years of lobbying, Swedish MEP Olle Schmidt admits he was pleasantly surprised by the Dutch move to ban khat.
Abukar Awale, who organised the demonstration, is himself a former khat addict.
Tory spokesman for social cohesion, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, believes that advice and education about khat is simply not enough to tackle the problem.
The British government has commissioned a new review of khat use - the date of its publication is still to be confirmed.
"The economy of the population here where khat is grown will be totally crippled and people will have no source of income, " he adds.
They added that the social impact of khat has kept men away from work and led to the disintegration of families and local communities.
But in 2008 Baroness Warsi wrote an article in the Guardian promising to make khat an illegal drug if the Conservatives came into power.
He also says that other payments were flown from Wilson Airport in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, into Somalia on cargo planes transporting the stimulant, khat.
The council's vice-chairman, Dr Hew Mathewson, said he gave "no credence" to links between the khat trade and the funding of al-Shabaab, the Somali-based cell of al-Qaeda.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, is refusing to clamp down on the growth of khat in his country despite fears for the health of those using it.
But ACMD chairman Professor Les Iversen said the review "found insufficient evidence of either health or societal harms caused by the use of khat to justify its control in the UK".
Khanna began his movie career in the 1966 film Aakhri Khat (The Last Letter), but his breakout role came three years later in the highly successful Aradhana (Worship), in which he played a dashing pilot.
"If the ban is accepted or if it is enforced, the whole Meru county, the economy of the Meru county will be crippled, " says Kenyan khat farmer Edward Mutuura, who exports the majority of his crops to the Nertherlands.
In 2005 the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said "the evidence of harm resulting from khat use is not sufficient to recommend its control, " and there was "no evidence of its spread to the general population".
The Home Office says it is aware of the concerns surrounding the side-effects of khat but that it stands by the decision in 2005 not to classify it after it took advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
The ACMD said there was "no evidence" khat, which consists of the leaves and shoots of a shrub cultivated in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and contains the stimulant cathinone, was directly linked with serious or organised crime.
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