Three UK drug advisers quit in row with government

Three more members of Britain’s drug advisory panel quit on Tuesday, media reported, as a row between scientists and the government deepened and threatened to cause ministers further embarrassment.

The three members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) resigned their posts shortly after a meeting with British Home Secretary Alan Johnson who had been trying to smooth over tensions with the panel.

The row broke out at the end of last month when Johnson sacked the country’s chief drug adviser Professor David Nutt on the grounds he had overstepped his role and was too political.

Nutt had argued that ecstasy and cannabis were less harmful than alcohol, and 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’s 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’s sacking angered many prominent members of Britain’s scientific community, and two members of the ACMD quit in protest days later. Media reports said three more scientists had now also resigned.

The Home Office said it could not confirm the resignations but issued a joint statement with the ACMD in which it said Tuesday’s meeting had been “very constructive”.

“The Home Secretary emphasised the value he placed on ACMD’s advice, the important contribution the ACMD had made to government drugs policy in the past and how he expected it to continue do so in the future,” a Home Office spokesman said.

“The ACMD summarised their concerns regarding how their advice is received by the Home Office and over the dismissal of Professor Nutt.

“The discussions were very constructive and it was agreed that the ACMD would continue discussions with the Home Office and government chief scientific advisers in establishing a way to work collaboratively together into the future.”

Nutt has said if the council was to carry out its work effectively it needed to be reformed and given greater independence.

He said he would help set up an alternative body unless experts were allowed to speak freely about the scientific evidence on the impact of drugs.

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LONDON (Reuters)