DRUGS TSAR 'SACKED OVER COMMENTS'

The Government's chief drug adviser has been sacked after claiming
cannabis, ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol and
cigarettes, sources said.

Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse
of Drugs, sparked outrage earlier this week after he criticised the
decision to reclassify cannabis as a Class B drug.

It is understood Home Secretary Alan Johnson asked him to consider his
position in the wake of the comments, saying he had "no confidence" in
him.

In a lecture and briefing 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, who reclassified
cannabis, of "distorting and devaluing" scientific research.

Prof Nutt said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk"
of psychotic illness. 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, he said. He also repeated his claim that
the risks of taking ecstasy are no worse than riding a horse.

Ms Smith's decision to reclassify cannabis as a "precautionary step"
sent mixed messages and undermined public faith in Government science,
he said.

He added: "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."

Speaking to Sky News, Prof Nutt said he was disappointed by the
decision but linked it to "political" considerations. 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."