The Gown – student newspaper at Queen's University Belfast.

NEWS: Adviser fired for advising

The Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, forced the resignation of senior member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, David Nutt, because, according to Johnson, he “stepped over the line” in his advice.

BY EMMA GALLEN

Nutt had told the New Labour government not to raise the classification of Cannabis to become B again as the scientific research showed that at most it should be a Class C. The former Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, made the decision to reclassify the drug in January of this year despite evidence saying that it was unnecessary. The real issue hasn’t even arisen from the reclassification but in the voiced dismay of Nutt. Upon announcing that he thought the government were wrong to ignore the scientists and that LSD and ecstasy were no more harmful than alcohol. It has been reported that Johnson believes he was right in firing Nutt because it’s important that the public’s ideas on drugs are not “blurred” by new scientific research. Nutt’s defence has been that the Advisory council was set up to advise, that every other government has heeded to the advice and that most importantly scientific fact should mean more than political ideology.

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