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UK: Professor Nutt sacked

Professor David Nutt, the government's chief drug adviser, has been sacked a day after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.

Nutt incurred the wrath of the government when he claimed in a paper that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The home secretary has asked Professor Nutt to resign as chair of the ACMD [Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs].

"In a letter he [Alan Johnson] expressed surprise and disappointment over Professor Nutt's comments which damage efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs.

"We remain determined to crack down on all illegal substances and minimise their harm to health and society as a whole."

Nutt had criticised politicians for "distorting" and "devaluing" the research evidence in the debate over illicit drugs.

Posted By jamesk at 2009-10-30 13:14:38 permalink | comments
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Sean. : 2009-11-03 13:07:33
"We remain determined to crack down on all illegal substances and minimise their harm to health and (this current form of) society as a whole."

This is the problem with "leaders" these days...such a lack of vision. As if society is healthy, what with "pandemics" happening and being planned for in the future as well. A healthy society might not need the kind of leaders contemporary society currently employs, especially if the citizens have more vision and visionary experiences than the leaders.

Gratitude for Prof. Nutt's courage (nuts?). On the day we can stand together with that kind of courage, we'll create a new and healthy society.

(Also, a total aside, I just happened to notice that this little notice could use an edit:

All anonymous comments will be reviewed by a moderatOR before going live.)

mark. : 2009-10-31 23:22:53
follow the money, your taxes are going to catch, penalise and jail all the cannabis users. its no wonder they are opposed to the truth. its very sad when they silence someone in this way.
this means that the laws are unjust, they had been told, they sacked and keep the lies going by employing an adviser that gives them what they want to hear. i read a comment somewhere else that people that smoke pot just feel the need then to take harder drugs. when the real story is that some desire harder drugs and pot is something they take along the way. i guess that comment came from non science and it makes you wonder how much other rubbish they make up too.
for example they dont want to go easy on pot because it helps fund the cartels to push other drugs, but why penalise a pot person for this? its their own stupid policies that make the problems to begin with. nutt should be commended.
Psychotrophic : 2009-10-31 20:48:43
Nutt's comments:
[link]
R.U. Sirius. : 2009-10-31 12:42:07
Nutt Sacked... excellent headline!
motley. : 2009-10-31 08:11:06
we are governed by morons
Synchronium.net. : 2009-10-31 06:31:56
All UK residents, please sign this:

[link]

TooBad. : 2009-10-30 22:56:34
Wow, what an incredibly hard-line reaction. No debate, no rationalization, just boom, you're fired. I was shocked that such a high-ranking government official would make such honest remarks about the true dangers of drugs.

I guess I shouldn't be too shocked by the reaction, but it is depressing. The winds do feel to be changing...just not very quickly.

??. : 2009-10-30 19:07:17
holy shit that was fast.
the UK is looking more fascist every day, and i'm an american
Adam : 2009-10-30 18:48:38
AWFUL. You could almost say the Home Secretary is nutts... almost.
At least now we know who to trust in a way; it's like the battle lines have been drawn between the office held by Prof. Nutt and the Home Secretary. Thanks to Prof. Nutt we know who intends to lie to us, and who is merely forced to do it. See as soon as Prof. Nutt did something that honest he made the good which came from it inevitable.
jdmoney. : 2009-10-30 18:22:18
"We remain determined to crack down on all illegal substances and minimise their harm to health and society as a whole."

The crack down on the substances is harming society more than the substances themselves.

D. : 2009-10-30 14:29:26
Sad! Tell the truth, expose the real problems with alcohol and tobacco, and get canned! Just goes to show the power of big business!
Niall. : 2009-10-30 13:33:52
Obviously the policy is toe the line or go.
Alchemist. : 2009-10-30 13:24:36
RIP Democracy in England: 1265 to 2009. We will never see your light again.

Professor Nutt, who holds the Edmond J Safra chair of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London and heads the Psychopharmacology Unit at the University of Bristol, made the terminal mistake of Telling the Truth.

This will not do!

He publicly disagreed with the UK Governments policy on drugs. More than that, he had the temerity to bring evidence based research into the argument.

He foolishly relied on scientific studies, crime statistics and mortality rates to suggest that drugs should be rated according to harm. As such he rated alcohol and tobacco as a greater risk to health and crime than cannabis, LSD and ecstasy.

But that's not government policy.

Dissension is futile

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