The UK's chief drugs adviser has been sacked by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, after criticising government policies.

Professor David Nutt, head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, criticised the decision to reclassify cannabis to Class B from C.

He accused ministers of devaluing and distorting evidence and said drugs classification was being politicised.

The home secretary said he had "lost confidence" in his advice and asked him to step down.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is the UK's official drugs advisory body.

Following his sacking, Prof Nutt told the BBC he stood by his claim that cannabis should not be a Class B drug, based on its effects.

He described his sacking as a "serious challenge to the value of science in relation to the government".

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Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he thought his ex-chief drugs adviser was "wrong" on cannabis - but sacked him for "crossing a line" into politics.

Mr Johnson also denied Professor David Nutt's claim he had been sacked on Prime Minister Gordon Brown's order.

He told Sky News: "You cannot have a chief adviser... campaigning against government decisions."

Prof Nutt says cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or nicotine and had been reclassified for political reasons.

He told the BBC last week the government had ignored advice and upgraded cannabis to a Class B drug against the scientific evidence and "on the whim of the prime minister".

Since being sacked via e-mail by Mr Johnson, Prof Nutt has predicted there would be further resignations from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs which he headed.

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An adviser to the government has resigned in protest at the home secretary's sacking of his chief drugs adviser, Prof David Nutt.

Dr Les King quit the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), saying Home Secretary Alan Johnson had denied Prof Nutt's "freedom of expression".

Prof Nutt was sacked after saying cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or nicotine.

He said the drug had been upgraded to Class B against scientific evidence.

The reclassification had been for political reasons and "on the whim of the prime minister", Prof Nutt claimed.

After being sacked via e-mail by Mr Johnson, Prof Nutt predicted there would be further resignations from the government advisory body that he headed.

On Sunday, he claimed the ACMD's member from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society had also resigned.

That post is held by Marion Walker...


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A second adviser to the government has resigned in protest at Home Secretary Alan Johnson's sacking of his chief drugs adviser, Prof David Nutt.

Marion Walker's departure from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) followed the earlier resignation of Dr Les King.

Dr King said he would like to see the ACMD become an independent body, free from the government's influence.

Mr Johnson said Prof Nutt was sacked for "crossing a line" into politics.

On Sunday, Prof Nutt revealed Ms Walker, ACMD member from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, had stepped down. However, she could not be reached for comment.

Ms Walker is clinical director of Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust's substance misuse service.

Prof Nutt said her departure "means we have no-one now looking at that vast group of people who prescribe drugs and advise people about drugs, drug harms from the over-the-counter and prescription side".

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Colleagues of the government drugs adviser sacked by Alan Johnson say they have "serious concerns" about his decision and whether they can continue.

Two drugs advisory panel members quit in protest when Prof David Nutt was fired for comments on cannabis policy.

Others have questioned whether they can continue in "good conscience".

The home secretary denied reports that there will be a review of the council's role and told MPs he would meet members to discuss the situation "shortly".

Prof Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, was sacked on Friday after using a lecture to say that cannabis was less harmful than alcohol and tobacco.

He also said it had been upgraded from class C to class B - against the council's advice - for political reasons.

Earlier in the year he suggested that taking ecstasy was no more dangerous than horse riding.

In a statement to MPs, Mr Johnson said the reason for sacking Prof Nutt was not "the work of the council but because of his failure to recognise that... his role is to advise rather than criticise".

He added that he had "lost confidence in the professor's ability to be my principal adviser on drugs".

Mr Johnson said Prof Nutt had "acted in a way that undermined the government rather than supporting its work".

But he added that the advisory council, set up in 1971, had been "invaluable to the successive governments it has served".

The letter sent by the council to the home secretary says that, while not all remaining 28 members have been reached, "it is clear that a majority of the council have serious concerns" about Prof Nutt's dismissal and the body's future.

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The UK government's chief science adviser has told BBC News that he supports the former chief drugs adviser's scientific view on cannabis.

Professor John Beddington, the UK's chief scientist, would not be drawn on whether the Home Secretary was wrong to sack Professor David Nutt.

Prof Nutt was chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

He was fired after using a lecture to say cannabis was less harmful than alcohol and tobacco.

Asked whether he agreed with Prof Nutt's view that cannabis was less harmful than cigarettes and alcohol, Prof Beddington replied: "I think the scientific evidence is absolutely clear cut. I would agree with it."

Professor Beddington is the man ultimately responsible for scientific advice in government.

He said that he believed that the sacking had occurred because of a breakdown in trust between Professor Nutt and the Home Secretary Alan Johnson.

"I think it's very difficult - when clearly trust had broken down between the Home Secretary and Professor Nutt - to see how that could go on," he told BBC News.

He stressed the importance placed by government on obtaining clear-cut scientific advice from experts.

He added: "I think it's fair to say we need to make a distinction between scientific advice and evidence - which is the role of experts and scientific committees and the role of ministers - which is to make policy."

He said he did not believe that the incident revealed an underlying problem in the way government used scientific advice.

"There has been a lot of concern in the media that this is in some sense an undermining of the way in which government uses scientific advice. Let me put it in context: there are more than 75 scientific advisory committees," he said.

"This is a single instance where there has been a problem. In my two years in government there has only been an instance with the ACMD."

But Professor Beddington said that he would urgently consult with other heads of expert committees to see if they had experienced difficulties in their role.

hahahahahahaha

I shouldn't laugh, really. It's not like this kerfuffle will make the slightest bit of difference to policy.
It'll just go down the memory hole and the average ignorant prohibitionist will cluck and say that the new strains of cannabis are a hundred times stronger than in the past, and that everyone knows smokers go nuts.

What do those damn scientists know about science, anyway?
Reality has an obvious liberal bias...