The British government sacked its chief drugs adviser on Friday and accused him of undermining its anti-drug campaign after he argued that ecstasy, cannabis and LSD were less harmful than alcohol.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson said Professor David Nutt, head of the UK’s drugs advisory body, had overstepped his role and strayed into politics.
Nutt accused the government of ignoring scientific evidence to back its “moral” drive against drugs, while Johnson said the adviser had damaged its message about their dangers.
“[His] clear role ... is to provide independent scientific advice and not to lobby for changes in policy,” Johnson’s department said in a statement. “As chair of the council, his actions undermine its role and scientific independence.”
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government, trailing in the polls before an election due by next June, downgraded cannabis’ legal status on the advisory body’s advice in 2004, only to reverse the decision last year.
Brown said he wanted to send a strong message that use of the drug, particularly stronger strains known as “skunk,” was unacceptable.
The government said Nutt weakened that message in a lecture earlier this week when he accused politicians of artificially separating the dangers of alcohol and tobacco from other drugs.
Nutt accused ministers of misleading the public.
“You are more likely to die riding a horse than you are by taking cannabis or ecstasy,” he told BBC radio. “I am not prepared to mislead the public about the harms of drugs like cannabis and ecstasy just to give messages.”
Phil Willis, the opposition lawmaker who chairs parliament’s influential science committee, said it was “disturbing if an independent scientist should be removed for reporting sound scientific advice.”
Evan Harris, another committee member, said: “This is the behavior of a minister whose judgment is impaired by the need to feed the tabloid addiction to a hardline drugs policy.”
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