Drugs Nutt and the Minister

UK - Getting Drugs policy right has proved to be a thorny problem for all governments but the crisis over former drugs advisor Professor Nutt is becoming more of a tangle by the day.

The Home secretary Alan Johnson has been defending his sacking of Professor David Nutt. Some scientists are reported to have backed the sacking but further resignations have been threatened.from the Government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs as it emerged that the Home secretary has put the body under review. Two drugs advisory panel members have already quit in protest.

The Home Secretary could easily have ignored the remarks by Professor Nutt ,the UK's chief drugs adviser, who questioned the reclassification of cannabis as a "class B" drug. Instead the Home Secretary opted for confrontation.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs was established under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 during Edward Heath's Conservative government. Colleagues of the sacked Chairman say they have "serious concerns" about his decision and whether they can continue.

This is of course not the first nor will it be the last spat between a politician and a government adviser. "Advisers advise, ministers decide." said Margaret Thatcher when Nigel Lawson resigned as Chancellor in 1989 over the role of Sir Alan Walters, her Downing Street economics adviser. Nevertheless Ministers risk losing the confidence of expert advisers across government unless they confirm their independence following the sacking of Professor David Nutt, one of Britain's most senior government scientists said yesterday.

David Nutt is Professor of Psychopharmacology at Bristol University and the spat began as when he criticised policy on canabbis and suggested that Ecstasy, LSD and cannabis are less dangerous than both alcohol and cigarettes - he has also admitted that some of his children have taken drugs.

The Home Secretary Alan Johnson told MPs that he "lost confidence" in Professor David Nutt's ability to be his principal adviser on drugs policy after he had "acted in a way that undermined the government".

David Cameron called the sacking of the Government's chief drugs adviser an “unseemly spat” today, but said that his party did not support any relaxation in the penalties for taking illegal drugs.