Tell the truth, get sacked

The British government's chief drug advisor David Nutt is "extremely disappointed" after being asked to leave for claims that cannabis, ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes.

In a lecture and briefing paper for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College, London, Professor Nutt attacked what he called the "artificial" separation of alcohol and tobacco from other, illegal, drugs.

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, he said.

"I think we have to accept young people like to experiment - with drugs and other potentially harmful activities - and what we should be doing in all of this is to protect them from harm at this stage of their lives. We therefore have to provide more accurate and credible information. If you think that scaring kids will stop them using, you are probably wrong."

He said cannabis was "not that harmful" a drug and repeated his warning to parents about the impact of alcohol on their children: "My children are much more likely to die or be seriously injured from alcohol than any of those other drugs. The greatest concern to parents should be that their children do not get completely off their heads with alcohol because it can kill them ... and it leads them to do things which are very dangerous like kill themselves or others in cars, get into fights ... get raped, engage in other activities which they regret subsequently. My view is that if you want to reduce the harm to society from drugs, alcohol is the drug to target at present and all parents should be very aware of that."

Read more here: Channel 4: Drug adviser asked to resign after comments

UPDATE: Two members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs resigned today in protest at Alan Johnson's treatment of Professor David Nutt. Another member told the Guardian that the experts were "planning collective action" against Johnson, adding: "Everybody is devastated. We're all considering our positions."

See: David Nutt's sacking provokes mass revolt against Alan Johnson

| |

Comments

big-white - 2009-11-02 21:32:03

thus so the fight for the free mind continues

alexander ming - 2009-11-03 17:32:20

this is an absolute disgrace! it's about time we heard the truth from top ranking officials in government like this,and they ask him to resign!

Sponge - 2009-11-03 19:18:22

This rediculous! The gov't doesn't care about the truth... they expect everyone who works for them to follow their bs views like drones.
What the hell happened to freedom of speech eh? Even if it wasn't true (which it is)... people should still be entitled to their own opinions!
Good on the other members who are speaking out against this injustice!

Jusquiame - 2009-11-04 12:19:20

Well, a government adviser is supposed to advise about a matter he knows better than the government. Now we know he was only there to give some kind of credibility to government absurd point of view. We thought so, but now we are really sure.

K - 2009-11-04 12:32:28

There is something behind the scenes..i'm telling you. Governments definitly know the consequenes of drugs but still they battle them. It isnt about fear of losing the citizens to drugs anymore, it's about something more..

phil - 2009-11-04 14:13:05

Stoning!

phil - 2009-11-04 14:30:42

Btw. This ranking was published first time in the medicine journal "The Lancet" in March 2007.

So why are they doing this shit now?

Did the government accidentally read it in a newspaper?

Its really too bad that the people wont show any sign of disagreement in the public with this pest of corruption. What did the government make out of us...

We are continually getting our feet pissed and letting them dry off. It stinks.

phil - 2009-11-04 14:31:59

dry over and over*
sry bad english, sry spam
:P

Truth - 2009-11-04 17:31:29

Scientific reslults are inferior when the perpetuation of the status quo e.g. the capitalist system is concerned.
Alcohol, nicotine and caffeïne are the choice drugs for the current system, simple as that. These substances are the engine of capitalism/ruthlessly squeezing out of the weak.

Peace.

Sjors - 2009-11-05 14:26:07

for public awareness this was actually a good case, even the Sun opened with an enormous frontpage caption "Advisor sacked about telling the truth about drugs" I think this did the case of public awareness on drugs an enormous favour

phil - 2009-11-05 16:06:21

thats really awesome ;)

tarden - 2009-11-05 19:40:17

THEY CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH !

SKA - 2009-11-06 02:16:26

The United Kingdom is a stronghold of Ignorance. These conservative politicians are damn fools. The only treatment according to me is overthrowing them. Violently. he time of flowers and peace is over.

If we don't fight for our freedom we'll have to accept our captivity.

Tobi - 2009-11-06 22:50:06

I agree completly with him

Fabiatsch - 2009-11-07 12:21:21

This could be the start of something good

suspicion - 2009-11-11 00:37:43

Good !

Add comment
Nickname *
Message *
Humanoid check *	These comments may only be submitted by humans. To check if you are humanoid, please enter the coloured letters from the image. The image only contains upper case letters and numbers, but you can give your input in upper and lower case. ( Click here if you can't read it )

Customer Support

Order information