The UK’s drug laws are still preventing scientists from exploring the potential benefits of substances like cannabis and MDMA, according to Professor David Nutt, a leading neuroscientist and former government drug advisor.
“The UK has gone from being early adopters of evidence based harm reduction – prescription heroin, needle exchanges and opiate substitute therapy – to lagging behind many countries across the globe that are modifying their drug policies to better reflect advances in our understanding of drugs,” he said.
Nutt, who’s a professor at Imperial College London, has just won the John Maddox Prize for pushing his views on this very subject. The international prize, which is only in its second year, is awarded for courage in promoting science and evidence on a matter of public interest in the face of hostility.
Back in 2009, Nutt was sacked from his position as an advisor to the government and chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) after repeatedly butting heads with ministers over the classification of illegal substances. Matters came to head when he published an editorial in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in which he famously compared the risks of taking ecstasy with the risks of horse riding. He was subsequently dismissed from his post at the ACMD by then Home Secretary Alan Johnson in October that year...
Read the rest as written by me over at Forbes.com.
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