Politics vs. Science – from Galileo to Professor David Nutt | The Brain Bank
In 2009 Professor David Nutt caused controversy for the UK government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs after stating the cannabis should be declassified to a Class C (rather than Class B) illegal drug. During his time on the Council, Prof. Nutt had also claimed that recreational use of ecstasy is less dangerous than horse-riding. He was sacked from his government-advice post by Alan Johnson, the then Labour UK Home Secretary, who wrote to Nutt, “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.” By that logic, Johnson must have breathed a huge sigh of relief when three more scientist experts on the Council soon resigned. [...]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Post by Natasha Bray
Full article at thebrainbank.scienceblog.com
Comments
Post a Comment