Fired U.K. Drug Adviser Says Scientists Will Shun Government

[Blue_Tires]

Source: Bloomberg

The U.K. drug-policy adviser who was fired last week said that his sacking will discourage scientists from working for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government.

Two members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs have resigned since David Nutt was ousted as chairman for saying ministers had gone against scientific advice for political reasons in stiffening penalties for possessing and dealing cannabis.

“It seems unlikely that any ‘true’ scientist -- one who can only speak the truth -- will be able to work for this, or future, home secretaries,” Nutt wrote in the Times.

Les King quit the advisory council yesterday morning, saying Home Secretary Alan Johnson had denied the right of Nutt to speak his mind. Professor Marion Walker, a pharmacist, later resigned from the council.

“The home secretary appeared to deny David Nutt’s freedom of expression,” King told the British Broadcasting Corp. Nutt did not appear to “transgress this imaginary line between science and policy,” he said.

Nutt, professor of Neuropsychopharmachology at Imperial College, London, was sacked after he said that cannabis is less harmful than nicotine or alcohol and there was no evidence to back the government’s decision to reclassify the drug. The change was made for political reasons, Nutt said.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=a2hnHdYMVClw

[Flaneur]

1. This is getting lots of press in Britain.

The government drug advisor has been fired for daring to speak the truth about the relative harms of legal and illegal drugs.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Interesting perspective...I had not realized how universal the laws were.

And now find myself asking...why?
Why are Britain and the US so much in tandem on drug laws?
( Not to mention other policies).
Also, I am wondering...which British media is trustworthy?
Anyone know? I sure would like recommendations.

[Flaneur]

3. I like the Guardian, but a lot of British papers are pure tabloid trash.

Like the Daily Mail.

BBC is also pretty reliable.

[depakid]

4. Labour continues to implode

Neoliberalism and pandering to the right hasn't worked any better across the pond than in the US.

Trouble is, the Tories will be worse (despite their rhetoric).

[Peace Patriot]

5. This is called tit for tat (as with the Iraq War). The "war on drugs" is a BIG BUSINESS--

sucking trillions of dollars out of taxpayers' pockets, while social programs are starved of funds. And it's not just war profiteering--as with the $6 BILLION in military aid to Colombia (a country with one of the worst human rights record on earth)--it's also prison profiteering, the corruption of the justice system, and items like the removal of black voters from black urban communities to prisons in white rural areas with the bodies then counted (prisoners can't vote) for census/Congressional representation and funding purposes. The "war on drugs" is a corpo-fascist plot with many goals--all of them bad.

And here's the tit for tat part: Most of Latin America is heading toward decriminalization of marijuana. Mexico just did it. The Bushwhack "war on drugs" has utterly failed there, and has caused untold mayhem. Their drug war guy resigned and said, "Decriminalize it!" Bolivia has decriminalized the coca leaf (but not cocaine). This is the overwhelming trend in the Americas--for innocent plants. And in the states, California is seriously considering MJ decriminalization, as are several other states. Medical marijuana (doctors' prescription) is also in various stages of being legalized. The US federal government authority to keep brutally enforcing this extremely unpopular, extremely expensive and extremely destructive social policy of criminalizing mild drugs and minor drug use is under assault. When the Bushwhacks were under assault, worldwide and at home, over their plans to invade Iraq to steal their oil, who came to their rescue--in order to get some bits of the booty? England! That was really the only gloss of legitimacy that the Bushwhacks could achieve.

To find out what the bits of booty are, for England, I would say, first of all, look to Colombia and the military contracts for the seven new US military bases being established there, or perhaps the booty will come later, when the true goals of the "war on drugs" are closer to fruition (oil war II).

War on Iraq. War on Afghanistan/Pakistan. War on terror. War on drugs. England is on board for it all, to get some of the contracts and to benefit from the land and resources that are stolen. Pure tit for tat. You support our dreadful crimes; we toss you some scraps from the table.

[Blue_Tires]

6. ttt

[bemildred]

7. John Beddington backs Professor David Nutt's stance on cannabis

Government divisons over the sacking of its chief drug adviser deepened yesterday as its most senior scientist backed Professor David Nutt for saying that cannabis was less harmful than alcohol.

Professor John Beddington, the Chief Scientific Adviser, said research showing the drug to be less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes was “absolutely clear cut”, though he stopped short of criticising Alan Johnson’s decision to dismiss him.

Professor Beddington’s intervention came as it emerged that Lord Drayson, the Science and Innovation Minister, e-mailed No 10 at the weekend to say that he was “pretty appalled” by the Home Secretary’s move, which had the scientific community “up in arms”.

Both were abroad when Professor Nutt was dismissed — Lord Drayson in Japan and Professor Beddington in Russia — and neither was consulted by Mr Johnson despite their roles in overseeing science advice across Whitehall.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6902240.ece