The Tough Case of Professor Nutt
David Nutt worked as a scientific
advisor for the British government.
His contract was discontinued in 2009
because of his views on drugs. He
delivered a speech on the issue at the
British Science festival.
I sure did not enjoy getting sacked. But I
would not take back anything I said. I was
telling my view as a scientist – and I am sure
going to continue doing so, professor David
Nutt says at the British science festival.
The position of scientific advisor is often
brought up in discussions on how politics
and science could work together, and many people
expect advisors to be among the suggestions that the
emeritus-chancellor, Kari Raivio, is about to present
in his report later this fall.
But a position of a scientific advisor can also be
tricky. And of this David Nutt gives us a perfect example.
Nutt is a psychiatrist and neuropsychopharmacologist
and has worked as a drug policy advisor for
the British Department of Health, Ministry of Defence
and the Home Office.
In January 2009, his comments started to tread on
the toes of the politicians. First he compared taking
ecstasy to riding on a horse, noting that horses kill far
more people annually than the notorious drug. This
made the home secretary to publicly criticise her own
advisor.
But this did not stop Nutt. In October, he allowed a
lecture of his to be published in a pamphlet against
the Government’s decision
to classify cannabis as a more
dangerous drug than it had
been considered before. It was
now classified as class B drug,
thereby grading it up from the
earlier C status. In his lecture,
Nutt argued that according to the damage caused to
the society, alcohol and tobacco should be classified
as class B drugs, but cannabis should remain in the C-category.
This was too much for the home secretary, and
Nutt was publicly dismissed from his position.
This has not made the tabloid-labelled ”dangerous professor” to withdraw his claims.
— Everything I have said was based on facts. What
is the point of being a scientific advisor, if you cannot
or will not voice your scientific views? Nutt asked
while giving a speech at the British Science Festival in
September 2014.
— I have also got pretty strong support, he noted,
while showing a picture of the US president, Barack
Obama, giving his speech on the change in the US
drug policy on cannabis. While Nutt pointed out that
Obama had no alternative — otherwise the Federal
drug officials would have had to start dealing with
States that had legalized cannabis — he nonetheless
added a text to the picture: Obama agrees with Nutt.
Nutt also believed that in reality the top UK politicians
did also agree with him — but did not have the
courage to do so in public.
— They have a lot at stake. Drugs are an easy target
for a moral attack by the tabloids, so the politicians
are afraid to touch on the matter, he pointed out.
But politicians are not stupid.
— There just does not seem to be that many votes
for doing the right thing. Remember, that the people
suffering from our drug policies are often young and
belong to the minorities. They get arrested, not the
Eton students.
And getting arrested carries the risk of getting a
criminal record, which Nutt argued to be a far worse
thing for a young person than the occasional use of
cannabis.
He also pointed a finger at the alcohol industry,
which is keen not to repeat the mistakes the tobacco
industry made.
— They do not say alcohol is not dangerous, they
just say you have to enjoy it right. They do not say
anything they cannot get away
with, and so they make it easy
for politicians to look the other
way.
Nutt himself is not looking
the other way. As a Professor at
The Imperial College, London,
Nutt seeks to get his voice heard. He is also the chair of
the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, and
from this position he aims to convey balanced and realistic
information on drugs, including the view that
alcohol is more dangerous than cannabis.
— They can sack me. But they cannot silence me,
Nutt told the crowd.
text Juha Merimaa
photo Layton Thompson / Imperial College London
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