New UK Drug Adviser Said Marijuana Should Be Legal
Back in October, the British government fired its chief drug adviser, Prof. David Nutt, for saying that marijuana is less dangerous than many legal drugs and that British laws should be changed to reflect this reality. Many other members of the United Kingdom’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs resigned in protest
Then this week, Les Iversen, a former pharmacology professor at the University of Oxford, was announced as Nutt’s interim replacement as the council’s chairman. And guess what? He’s also said that the UK’s marijuana laws should change.
January 15, 2010 32 Comments
Common Sense From Britain
On Sunday, the British newspaper The Observer wrote, “In June 1971, US President Richard Nixon declared a ‘war on drugs.’ Drugs won.” Read the rest here.
September 7, 2009 42 Comments
British Scientists Warn Gov’t: We’re Turning into the U.S.
British scientists warn increasing hostility toward scientific evidence that contradicts political agendas could hinder the collaborative relationship policy and science enjoys in Britain, the Guardian reported yesterday.
Last November, the British government ignored the advice of its Scientific Advisory Board and moved marijuana into a more dangerous class of drugs, a move described by top scientists at the time as “a sad departure from the welcome trend … of public policy following expert scientific advice.”
Of course, here in the United States, government has been ignoring its scientific advisors on marijuana policy for decades, at least since Nixon first lined his bird cage with the two-year study he commissioned recommending marijuana’s decriminalization.
And that unwelcome trend continues to this very day here, as evidenced by drug czar Gil Kerlikowske’s recent lie that marijuana “has no medicinal benefit.” Not sure who Kerlikowske’s scientific advisors are, but the one we taxpayers use, the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine, says: “Nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety … all can be mitigated by marijuana.”
Then again, it doesn’t take a scientist to know that it’s wrong to deny sick people medicine that eases their pain, or to arrest responsible adults because they prefer a drug that’s safer than alcohol or tobacco.
August 4, 2009 37 Comments
Britain’s Big Step Backward
Update to Bruce’s post yesterday about the British government’s effort to increase penalties for small marijuana violations over the objections of its scientific advisors: In what was really an expected formality, the House of Lords approved the move.
As Bruce pointed out, with its relatively good track record of science-based marijuana policy, it’s difficult to imagine why Britain would suddenly want to ape our politically and ideologically driven approach. After all, superstition and zealotry are entrenched realities of failed U.S. marijuana policy making. But what’s Britain’s excuse?
November 26, 2008 2 Comments
Pleas for Sanity From Britain
Forces of common sense are making a last-ditch stand in Britain today. Earlier this year, the British government announced its intention to “upgrade” marijuana from “Class C,” the lowest category of illicit drugs, where it’s been since 2004, to “Class B”: drugs considered more dangerous and subject to stiffer penalties. The move directly contradicted the advice of the government’s official scientific advisers, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Today, a last-ditch effort to delay the change is being debated in the House of Lords, a proposal supported by a group of top scientists in a letter published this morning by the Guardian newspaper. Reclassification, they argue, “would be a sad departure from the welcome trend … of public policy following expert scientific advice unless there is new evidence.” [Read more →]
November 25, 2008 1 Comment
