Another question from my English friends! How delightful. Once again I had to do some investigating on this one as English political intrigue is not a big ratings winner here. I will present the outline of the story for those many, many people who don’t care at all what the UK government does. It seems that, like many governments, they ask for advice from experts in various fields in order to base their policy on something other than political whims (unlike here, where it is basically made up).

Peligroso!!

David Nutt was an (unpaid) adviser on drugs. Or to give him his full title Professor David Nutt, MRCP MRCPsych FRCPsych FmedSci head of department of Neuro-psychopharmacology and Molecular Imaging at Imperial College London, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He holds visiting professorships in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. He is president of British Association of Psychopharmacology and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology and Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. So he seems fairly well qualified, presuming all those letters actually mean something and weren’t bought from a correspondence school in Utah.

Bueno!!

Alan Johnson, (UK Home Secretary) left school and became a postman.

Nutt pointed out that ecstasy is statistically safer than horse riding and cannabis is not really that harmful, and promptly got the sack, because Johnson wanted to hear something else – presumably silence. Although that does somewhat defeat the purpose of having advisers.
Personally I’m all for governments making decisions like this – all to often people are swayed by the facts rather than good old moral outrage. And lets face it, if governments did enact sensible drug policies I’d probably have to sell some of my yachts, and Mrs Dominguez II would not like that. So gracias Señor Johnson – gracias para todo!