CHIEF DRUG ADVISER SACKED OVER CANNABIS STANCE

Home Office Says Nutt's Comments Were Damaging

Professor Claims Scientific Contribution Devalued

Alan Johnson, the home secretary, has sacked Professor David Nutt as
senior drugs adviser after the scientist renewed his criticism of the
government's decision to toughen the law on cannabis.

Johnson wrote to Nutt saying he no longer had confidence in him as
chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) and
asking for him to consider his position.

Nutt had accused ministers of "devaluing and distorting" the
scientific evidence over illicit drugs by their decision last year to
reclassify cannabis from class C to class B against the advice of the ACMD.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The home secretary expressed surprise
and disappointment over Professor Nutt's comments which damage
efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs."

In his reply, Nutt said: "If scientists are not allowed to engage in
the debate then you devalue their contribution to policymaking."

The sacking is likely to raise concerns among scientists over the
independence of advice to the government and may trigger further resignations.

The Home Office describes the ACMD as a independent expert body that
advises on drug-related issues including recommendations on
classification under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.

It is not thought that the home secretary spoke directly to Nutt
before requesting his resignation in writing.

Nutt told the BBC: "I think the issue is whether I am straying into
the realm of policy. I personally don't think I was."

The decision follows the publication of a paper by the Centre for
Crime and Justice at King's College London, based on a lecture Nutt
delivered in July. He repeated his familiar view that illicit drugs
should be classified according to the actual evidence of the harm
they cause and pointed out that alcohol and tobacco caused more harm
than LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

He also argued that smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small
risk" of psychotic illness.

Jacqui Smith, who took the decision as home secretary to increase the
penalties for cannabis use, said on BBC Question Time on Thursday:
"His job is to advise and my job as home secretary was to decide."
This led the Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik to argue: "What's the
point of paying people to give you expert advice if you then run your
government policy through the red tops?" The shadow home secretary,
Chris Grayling, backed Johnson's decision. "This was an inevitable
decision after his latest ill-judged contribution to the debate but
it is a sign of lack of focus at the Home Office that it didn't act
sooner given that he has done this before."

Richard Garside, director of the centre for Crime and Justice Studies
at King's College London, accused Johnson of undermining scientific
research. He said: "The message is that when it comes to the Home
Office's relationship with the research community honest researchers
should be seen but not heard."

Phil Willis, the Lib Dem MP who chairs the Commons science and
technology committee, said independent advice to the government was
essential and the sacking of Nutt was "disturbing if an independent
scientist should be removed for reporting sound scientific advice".