Following the sacking of Professor Nutt and resignation of members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), the Legalise Cannabis Alliance has challenged the way in which the Government formulates its policy on drugs.
Professor Nutt was sacked by the Home Secretary last Friday, following the Professor’s statement that cannabis is safer than alcohol or tobacco. Alun Buffry from the LCA said: “We have thought that the scientific basis for drugs policy is preferential to one based on (often-misguided) public or political opinion.
“Having studied many reports over the years I concur that cannabis is remarkably safe for the very vast majority of users, compared with the risks from alcohol or long term risks from tobacco.
“The Government’s refusal to accept the advice of its scientific advisory committee – for the first time ever by any Government – and its continued use of law enforcement to press its moral case on society have exposed prohibition as unjustifiable.
“The sacking of Professor Nutt is a blatant move to prevent Government scientists and advisers from speaking against Government policy, even when it is wrong. In short, it is more akin to tyranny than democracy.”
“But the debate on whether cannabis should be in class B or C distracts from the real questions: why should users be punished if they hurt nobody, and why should the production and supply be limited to criminal hands?
Ingo Wagenknecht , an advisor to the LCA on ecological and environ-political matters, said: ”The Government’s ignorance of scientific facts has lead to a scientist showing corporate responsibility for public health policy.
“They could not stand up for it any longer and the Government insistence on failure as the only option for Britain, where at least 1 in 25 people have tried cannabis and/ or is still using it, has now taken its toll on their only scientific committee. “