The last honest man

The decision follows the publication of a paper by the Centre for Crime and Justice at King’s College London, based on a lecture Nutt delivered in July. He repeated his familiar view that illicit drugs should be classified according to the actual evidence of the harm they cause and pointed out that alcohol and tobacco caused more harm than LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The home secretary expressed surprise and disappointment over Professor Nutt’s comments which damage efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs.”

Richard Garside, director of the centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London, accused Johnson of undermining scientific research. He said: “The message is that when it comes to the Home Office’s relationship with the research community honest researchers should be seen but not heard.”

Good work BLP. Clearly the public was in danger of being exposed to common sense.



  1. Improbus says:

    The truth is to politicians as holy water is to vampires. They just don’t mix.

  2. billabong3453 says:

    Acid,X,and weed sounds like a fun guy.

  3. Frank IBC says:

    “Nutt sacked…”

    Heh. 🙂

    [zinger! 🙂 – ed.]

  4. ECA says:

    Those knowledgeable enough to KNOW not to go into POLITICS, as ruled by those idiots that WANT the job.
    Those that WANTED the job and got out, because they found OUT why they SHOULDNT BE IN politics leaves even the WORSE of the idiots to hire for the job.

    WE need to be able to ELECT even those that DONT WANT THE JOB.. ITS (or should be)a requirement OF living in this country.

  5. ECA says:

    i KNOW..
    Lets install a DRAFT, for those that WE WISH to run this government.. as a requirement of living HERE.

  6. honeyman says:

    For anyone who interested, a short statement by Nutt on the cannabis reclassification can be found here.

    Also the full report here.

    He actually makes a lot of sense. No wonder he was sacked.

    Another key question we have to address as a society is whether our attitude to drugs is driven because of their harms or are we engaging in a moral debate? One thing this government has done extremely well in the last ten years is to cut away much of the moral argument about drug treatments. They have moved in the direction of improving access to harm reduction treatments, an approach that, I think, is wholly endorsed by the scientific community and bythe medical profession. For reasons that are not clear, the same evidence-based change has not happened in relation to the classification of drugs of misuse. I think it should happen because, while I’m not a moral philosopher, it seems to me diffi cult to defend a moral argument in relation to drugs if you don’t apply it to other equally harmful activities.

  7. Common Sense says:

    It a shame as they say – he after all was only using “Common Sense”
    Yet common sense is more and more uncommon
    And yet he lost his job over it all
    Perhaps he should file a grievance action with his employer or government union

  8. Ralph, the Bus Driver says:

    #1, Alphie,

    So you went from bumming money to pretending to be a Harry Chapin clone and drive an illegal hack looking for sexy young men who think your fucking fat ass is sexy enough for them.

    Alphie, keep the change! Just keep driving.

  9. Mr Anderson says:

    Prohibition only makes criminals out of good people and it’s just another way politicians cater to organized crime.

    Stop making the real criminals wealthy and rich.

    If a politician allows prohibition, they are a part of organized crime.

  10. qb says:

    @Alfred1

    You pulled yourself off the street and got back on your feet? Good for you, that’s impressive.

  11. Cursor_ says:

    Give a monkey a brain.

    Recreational drug use, no matter what it is, is a sign of bad genes.

    Cursor_

  12. ECA says:

    the question is one 1..

    DO you have the RIGHT to pollute yourself..
    Either your soul
    or your BODY..

    And which of the items will cause YOU and OTHERS more harm?

  13. Among us believers are those who once were Jihadists…major drug dealers…gangsters…with truly interesting stories to tell.

    Does your parole officer know who you hang around with now?

  14. jbellies says:

    +1 #21, especially the last two and a half sentences. And many others of common sense.

    Common sense and logic have never sufficed to overcome entrenched interests, however.

    Even the astounding Alfred1 has shown some flexibility. Is there hope?


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