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Sacked drugs advisor may set up alternative panel
By Kylie MacLellan
Last Updated: 2009-11-04 14:55:47 -0400 (Reuters Health)
LONDON (Reuters) - The chief drugs advisor sacked for criticising government policy said on Wednesday he will help to set up an alternative body unless experts are allowed to speak freely about the scientific evidence on the impact of drugs.
David Nutt said he had received offers of money to set up independently and that other members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) would join him if the dispute was not resolved.
Two members of the panel, which costs 150,000 pounds a year to run, have already quit in protest at Home Secretary Alan Johnson's decision to sack Nutt on the grounds he had overstepped his role and become too political.
"I've had people email me and say 'we will underwrite an alternative ACMD'," he told reporters, but refused to name any potential backers. "I'm not surprised that successful, intelligent people who have experienced drug use in the past would like to support some sensible voice or committee.
"Someone has got to give independent scientific advice," he added. "Unless this issue is resolved properly so that scientists can speak freely you're going to have to have an independent group and of course we will (set one up)."
Johnson, who the council report to, is due to meet its remaining members next week and Nutt said more may resign then if they are not happy with the outcome.
BANK OF ENGLAND-STYLE INDEPENDENCE
Nutt was sacked after arguing that ecstasy and cannabis were less harmful than alcohol. He also criticised Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government for ignoring scientific advice on those drugs, accusing ministers of misleading the public about their dangers for purely political reasons.
The Labour government downgraded cannabis' legal status on the advisory body's advice in 2004 but Brown reversed that decision last year, saying he wanted to send a strong message that the use of the drug was unacceptable.
Nutt said if the council was to carry out its work effectively it needed to be reformed, reporting to the government as a whole or a panel of ministers rather than just one, and given greater independence.
"Remodel the ACMD along the lines of the Bank of England," he said. "Take the responsibility for making the scientific decisions out of government just like they took the responsibility for interest rates out of government, because that stops this petty party politics.
"It should be very clear that the decisions about classification are made by the scientists and the decisions about penalties are made by politicians."
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