Government Adviser Fired For Saying Alcohol Is More Dangerous Than Drugs

The Guardian reports that Professor David Nutt, the British government's chief drug adviser, has been fired after claiming that ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol.

So continues the journey to failure first instigated by the British and United States government four decades ago when the two governments implemented their long and pointless "Wars on Drugs."

If you're one of the 34 percent of admirably plucky and stubborn Americans who don't think the War on Drugs is failing, perhaps examining the idiotic way in which the British government handles drugs will inspire you to see the flaws in supporting laws that arbitrarily dictate what substances human beings can and cannot ingest.

In 1971, the British government created the Misuse of Drugs Act, which categorizes drugs into a hierarchy of classes (A, B, and C). Class A includes heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, LSD and psilocybin mushrooms. Class B includes cannabis, amphetamine, codeine and methylphenidate ("Ritalin"). Finally, Class C includes GHB, ketamine, diazepam, flunitrazepam and most other tranquilizers, sleeping tablets and benzodiazepines as well as anabolic steroids.

Like in America, the British government punishes intent to distribute more harshly than regular possession. Class A drugs (heroin, cocaine, ecstasy) are treated as the worst substances. If a person does not have a medical prescription for a Class A drug, they could be fined at least £5000 ($8,223) or serve at least 6 months in jail. The minimum penalty for supplying a Class A drug is an "unlimited fine," and/or 7 years in jail. The maximum penalty for supplying a Class A drug is life in jail.

Class C drug possession (tranquilizers) are considered the "soft drugs" that will land one with 3 months in jail and/or a £500 ($822) fine. Supplying a Class C drug, however, can be punished with a 14-year prison sentence and/or an "unlimited fine."

In 2004, cannabis was reclassified from Class B to Class C in accordance with advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). Then, for some massively stupid reason, it was returned to Class B against ACMD advice in 2009.

This was essentially the British government's way of saying that cannabis (marijuana) somehow got more dangerous in the span of five years. It got so dangerous, in fact, that -- in order to protect the populace from the unholy destruction awaiting them on the receiving end of a bong hit -- the government needed to lock drug offenders in jail for up to three more years, and charge casual pot smokers thousands of pounds extra in fines to protect societal order.

Meanwhile, the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, an anti-drug prohibition group, has been wondering aloud why the Misuse of Drug Acts suspiciously excludes alcohol and tobacco, fair points considering "alcohol ranks as the fifth most harmful drug after heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and methadone, [while] tobacco is ranked ninth," Professor David Nutt wrote in the paper that landed him in hot water with the government. "Cannabis, LSD and ecstasy, while harmful, are ranked lower at 11, 14 and 18 respectively," Nutt adds.

Nutt is referring to the ACMD report on ecstasy, based on a 12-month study of 4,000 academic papers, and which concluded that it is nowhere near as dangerous as other Class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine, and should be downgraded to Class B. It seems Nutt's only crime was pointing out the glaringly obvious flaws in a system that arbitrarily dictates what drugs people cannot consume.

A recent study declared that alcohol will claim more than 90,000 lives over the next decade. Deaths due to drinking have tripled in the United Kingdom over the last 25 years, according to research by Professor Martin Plant, of the University of the West of England, one of the UK's leading authorities on alcohol-related harm. Alcohol-related deaths have risen in every age group since 1990, with 55- to 74-year-olds seeing the highest mortality rates and steepest increase, Plant's research reveals.

Alcohol abuse is systemic, and yet the government silently observes from the sidelines as hordes of citizens drink themselves to death. Why? Why is one drug acceptable, and ecstasy and cannabis have been outlawed by the state?

Smoking is the main cause of preventable disease and premature death in the United Kingdom. In England alone, over 80,000 deaths per year are due to smoking and about 8.5 million people still smoke in England today. Why are huge corporations permitted to legally kill over 80,000 UK residents a year, while a dude who gets busted with a baggie of weed goes straight to jail?

Unfortunately for Professor Nutt, there's no room for facts in the War on Drugs.

Jacqui Smith, then Home Secretary, was widely criticised by the scientific community for bullying Professor Nutt into apologizing for his comments that, in the course of a normal year, more people died from falling off horses than died from taking ecstasy.

Now, Professor Nutt has been fired by Jacqui Smith's successor, Home Secretary Alan Johnson. Johnson wrote to Professor Nutt, "It is important that the government's messages on drugs are clear and as an advisor you do nothing to undermine public understanding of them. I cannot have public confusion between scientific advice and policy and have therefore lost confidence in your ability to advise me as Chair of the ACMD."

The message is very clear: These stupid policies are arbitrary, ignore scientific evidence, and make zero sense. Those scientific minds brave enough to point out these obvious flaws get fired, while the insane, lazy, and stupid continue to uphold a broken system that clearly doesn't work, punishes innocent citizens, overcrowds prisons, and generally increases suffering.

Cross-posted from Allison Kilkenny's blog. Also available on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Follow Allison Kilkenny on Twitter: www.twitter.com/allisonkilkenny

Comments

[satanlite]

Pot and booze should be treated the same way in any sane society.

Trouble is, the rabid 20%er Republican conservatives have done their best to make our society insane with fear over the past 50 years.

End stupid marijuana prohibition now. Tax it. Take a huge bite out of crime and at tthe same time drive the nation back into the black with newly generated tax monies.

[houseofdny]

Exactly.

[rosiebond007]

Most addicts start along the road to hell with alcohol ...... then to further escape their feelings/problems they step into drugs. Alcohol helps to escape from reality by passing out, black outs etc. Its legal, and it raises enormous taxes.

The UK has done an assessment of lost working hours due to alcohol - the police BEGGED not to have the pubs open with longer hours - but no, it raises money for Governments.

How many people do you know who can stop after a couple of drinks ?
At 7.00pm have a good look at the red faces of those in power and see if they have even a mild alcohol problem!
In fact, you can check them out the morning after and see the residue of the night before !

To fire the Truth Teller is so very foolish when on the other hand you are trying to make people more healthy.

[Wisdo]

Keep pot illegal (and tax free)

[satanlite]

I'd rather pay a tax on a legal product than risk a few years in jail for buzz. I'm guessing you're just being sarcastic lol .... ;)

[JohnnyChristmas]

This may be too anecdotal, but in my 44 years, and for witnessing all the pot and such, the people I see over and over again who WRECK their lives, their health, their relationships, their reputations with others, hurt others, has been from drinking too much.

[johnsopinion]

Ironically, when my state went for passage of establishing a
lottery, the opposition of course used 'habitual dependency'
as its argument and had a record of defeating the measure.

At the time, a little checking found that more people's lives
were ruined by 'habitually' betting on the stock market than
by 'habitually' betting on lotteries! It was finally passed.

Like it or not, alcohol is a 'socially acceptable' stimulus,
like cancer is a 'socially acceptable' way to die. It's all
in one's beliefs.

Another great article by Kilkenny! Thanks.

[scarab23]

The truth has long been the enemy in this "war". Once again, in Great Britain, it has been proven to be the case. Dealing with this issue honestly, in a forthright manner, will always be rejected by the children we have elected, because they can't see how it benefits them, their corporate pals, or their temple priests.
It begs the question - Anything that might assist the inner adventure frightens them... Why?

[T Specter]

Stop criminalizing NORMAL HUMAN BEHAVIOR!

[ewoman]

Anyone who has worked in an alcohol and drug rehab (as I have), could tell any politician that the danger of dying from alcohol withdrawals is much higher than withdrawals from any hardcore drug such as heroin. Alcohol is A. But, there is too much money to be made from it to classify it.

[MerhabaAbi]

From my observations, alcohol is second only to meth for widespread destrucion to user and society. I drink, I don't use any illegal drugs but have friends that do. Again from my observations, the pot smokers are more friendly and less violent then users of the other popular drugs including beer, wine and liquor.

[JoeSchmuk]

...and on and on it goes. History repeating itself ad nauseum. What's a girl to do? Watching the microscopic movement of marijuana as it insinuates its way into the mainstream by way of a medical rationale is like watching glaciers flow. Course, there does seem to be a quickening of the pulse lately. Nice article Allison.

Interesting documentary on drug classification by the way:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-20-most-dangerous-drugs

ps: free Marc Emery. Help stop the illegal, hypocritical and pointless extradition of a marijuana activist.
http://freemarc.ca

[ashabot]

Alcohol is a drug with devastating consequences. Stupid in a bottle and it's all downhill from there.

[sdlittle]

Great post, Allison. Also, the corrections system is a major employer in many states. In some, even the biggest employer and there is NO doubt that the costly War on Drugs has made it that way. In a sense, it has become a welfare system for generations for otherwise unskilled workers (i.e., without degrees or vocational training for anything other than being, well, a prison guard) and therefore motivates these corrections employees to vote for politicans who support laws that keep them in jobs.
A few years ago, a very small town close to my hometown lost its private prison because of a dispute between the private prison and the city over phone rates. As soon as the prison, by far the town's largest employer, closed, the town all but closed with it. The citizens of this town, Sayre, Oklahoma, immediately lobbied their city to settle this dispute and re-open this job creator. Although you and I both know legalizing, especially marijuana, would create more jobs than keeping it illegal, those jobs would take a bit to create and these people don't want to wait for that. Not only that, they very well might not be educated in farming or retailing or just might not want to do the kind of labor that would entail.
Whatever their motivation, the War on Drugs has created this jobs at a huge cost to tax payers and freedom, but those who have them certainly don't want to lose them.

[mbaty]

Nothing is more profitable than selling something, confiscating it, and then selling it again. Either the hypocrisy of the system which allows us to drink alchohol at every event is a case of bad judgement or something more sinister. And don't mind the incessant pharma ads telling you "not to operate machinery or drive" while taking the latest patented pill.

[BusGreg]

Here are a few tidbits to consider....

The Institute of Medicine published in its Mar. 1999 report titled "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base":
"In fact, most drug users do not begin their drug use with marijuana--they begin with alcohol and nicotine, usually when they are too young to do so legally...

There is no evidence that marijuana serves as a stepping stone on the basis of its particular physiological effect."

As far as addictiveness is concerned:
http://www.procon.org/viewbackgroundresource.asp?resourceID=1492

Donald P. Tashkin, MD, Director of the Pulmonary Function Laboratories at the University of California, Los Angeles, reported at the June 2005 meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society on his as-yet unpublished study of 1,209 Los Angeles residents aged 59 or younger with cancer:
"We found absolutely no suggestion of a dose response [i.e. marijuana smoking leads directly to lung cancer].
The data on tobacco use... revealed a very potent effect and clear dose-response relationship -- a 21-fold greater risk of developing lung cancer if you smoke more than two packs a day.
So, in summary, we failed to observe a positive association of marijuana use and other potential co-founders."

[satanlite]

I love the term "stepping stone".

Reading is a stepping stone to almost every other behavior. End the horror of reading and then we can address the real stepping stone - learning to walk. These behaviors must be stopped!

[curanipedoug]

Someday "real Americans" and the British public will realize the "war on drugs" is just about profits.
For just a moment imagine the quantity of drugs it takes for every community in the USA and GB to have an ample supply. Imagine the transportation of (100's) hundreds of TONS of drugs, imported and used. The sheer volume tells any thinking person there is government corruption involved.
Legal drugs do not provide money for graft.
So drugs remain illegal.
Only stupid people think drug laws are for the protection of society (until a family member is arrested).

[Gregorio]

Wow, Allison. What a wonderful article. Was it Schopenhauer who said truth has three stages, ridicule, violent opposition and then accepted common sense or something like that? I guess we're in the second stage regarding the "socially acceptable" addictions (alcohol, nicotine and gambling). I feel very sorry for Dr. Nutt, but he is in the very best company of so many other social scientists. Small consolation, but in the end what he is saying will be fully realized. The public health implications are just vast.