diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 27a15725ca..00b5933aad 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -123,8 +123,8 @@
  * Rename DisableFlag class to EnableFlag on guardrails (CASSANDRA-17544)
 
 4.1.2
-
-
+ * Remove six and Py2SaferScanner merge cruft (CASSANDRA-18354)
+ 
 4.1.1
  * Deprecate org.apache.cassandra.hadoop code (CASSANDRA-16984)
  * Fix too early schema version change in sysem local table (CASSANDRA-18291)
diff --git a/pylib/cqlshlib/saferscanner.py b/pylib/cqlshlib/saferscanner.py
index 5afd8ef172..2c2b6100d9 100644
--- a/pylib/cqlshlib/saferscanner.py
+++ b/pylib/cqlshlib/saferscanner.py
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 # regex in-pattern flags. Any of those can break correct operation of Scanner.
 
 import re
-import six
 try:
     from sre_constants import BRANCH, SUBPATTERN, GROUPREF, GROUPREF_IGNORE, GROUPREF_EXISTS
 except ImportError:
@@ -101,7 +100,7 @@ class Py311SaferScanner(SaferScannerBase):
         self.scanner = re._compiler.compile(p)
 
 
-SaferScanner = Py36SaferScanner if six.PY3 else Py2SaferScanner
+SaferScanner = Py36SaferScanner
 if version_info >= (3, 11):
     SaferScanner = Py311SaferScanner
 elif version_info >= (3, 8):