Sacked: drugs tsar who said LSD was safer than alcohol

Published on Friday 30 October 2009 21:21

THE UK government's chief drugs adviser was forced to quit yesterday in the wake of a row over the dangers of class A drugs.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson asked Professor David Nutt to resign as chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), saying he had "lost confidence" in his ability to give impartial advice.

He accused Prof Nutt of going beyond his remit as an evidence-based scientist and accused him of "lobbying for a change in government policy".

But the professor hit back, accusing the government of misleading the public in their messages about drugs and of having "Luddite" tendencies.

He linked his sacking to "political" considerations, citing the forthcoming general election.

Prof Nutt sparked controversy this week when he said Ecstasy and LSD were less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes, and criticised the decision to upgrade cannabis to class B.

Speaking after he had agreed to step down, he said: "It's unusual political times, I suppose, elections and all that. It's disappointing.

"But politics is politics and science is science, and there's a bit of a tension between them sometimes."

He went on to attack Prime Minister Gordon Brown for making what he said were "completely irrational" statements about cannabis.

Confessing himself "extremely surprised" by the decision to upgrade cannabis, he said: "The danger is they (politicians] are misleading us. The scientific evidence is there – it's in all the reports we published."

In his letter demanding Prof Nutt's resignation, Mr Johnson wrote: "It is important that the government's messages on drugs are clear and as an adviser you do nothing to undermine the public understanding of them.

"As my lead adviser on drugs harms, I am afraid the manner in which you have acted runs contrary to your responsibilities.

"I cannot have public confusion between scientific advice and policy and have therefore lost confidence in your ability to advise me as chair of the ACMD.

"I would therefore ask you to step down from the council with immediate effect."

The row erupted earlier this week when, in a paper for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College, London, Prof Nutt attacked what he called the "artificial" separation of alcohol and tobacco from other, illegal, drugs.

He accused former home secretary Jacqui Smith of "distorting and devaluing" scientific research.

He said that when she reclassified cannabis, which he described as creating only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness, she had fallen victim to a "skunk scare".

And he claimed advocates of moving ecstasy into class B from class A had "won the intellectual argument".

All drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, should be ranked by a "harm" index, he said, with alcohol coming fifth behind cocaine, heroin, barbiturates and methadone. Tobacco should rank ninth, ahead of cannabis, LSD and ecstasy.