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Brown's meddling to blame for drug policy chaos, says Clarke
Ross Lydall2 Nov 2009
GORDON Brown's determination to toughen the law on cannabis soon after becoming Prime Minister was today blamed for the furore around the sacking of the Government's top drugs adviser.
Former home secretary Charles Clarke said Mr Brown had been wrong to "pre-judge" reclassifying cannabis prior to receiving the advice of an independent panel of experts.
Further resignations from the panel were expected today as its sacked chairman claimed that the Government's drugs policy was "in tatters". Professor David Nutt was dismissed on Friday as chairman of the advisory council on drugs misuse after saying that cannabis was less harmful than alcohol and nicotine. He had described the Government's decision in January to reclassify it from a class C to a class B substance as "absurd".
Today Mr Clarke accused Mr Brown of ignoring his scientific advisers by rejecting their findings on cannabis when he reclassified the drug in January.
The advisory council, in a report presented last year after being commissioned by Mr Brown within weeks of him entering No10 in 2007, had called for cannabis to remain class C.
The decision to raise its status increased the maximum prison sentence for possession from two to five years. Mr Brown and then home secretary Jacqui Smith had ordered the review after being alarmed at the effect of extra-strength cannabis called skunk.
But Mr Clarke told the Today programme: "I think the mistake was right at the beginning of [Mr Brown's] premiership, saying he was going to change the cannabis rules before the advisory committee had considered its position. I think that was an error."
Professor Nutt and Home Secretary Alan Johnson remained at loggerheads today, with both penning newspaper articles. Professor Nutt, whose sacking has been followed by the resignation from the panel of Dr Les King and Marion Walker, said that no "true" scientist would be able to work for MrJohnson again.
But the Home Secretary insisted that Professor Nutt had no right to lobby against government policy.
Reader views (22)
Cannabis is a HERB not a drug.
- Conservation Chris, Knutsford, England, 02/11/2009 21:04
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Keith all these advisors are unpaid. You cannot get the Sack from an unpaid job. You are told that your advice is no longer required the end. Anyway it seems to me that now it looks like Labour will lose the next election all these so called experts and advisors are deserting the sinking ship. Funny how they never spoke out before or would have spoken out if it was odds on that Labour were favourites to win again.
- Den, London, 02/11/2009 14:34
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Disgraceful behaviour by Alan Johnson. The 1971 Misuse of Drugs act requires an evidence base classification and the advisory panel is specifically required to provide that. The Professor was sacked for doing his job. That the Conservative spokesman Chris Grayling agrees with Alan Johnson shows how un-reformed Cameron's "liberal" conservatives are.
The evidence has been around for a long while that current drug policy has been a complete failure. The law has increased usage and increased harm whilst creating a multi-billion pound criminal run unfettered free market in drugs. The only people to benefit from the current policy are drug dealers, the police and politicians. We need legalisation, the dead hand of state control on the market and more education and treatment.
- Tony Gosling, London, 02/11/2009 14:11
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This government wouldn't know the truth if it got up and bit them. All they think about is targets. That's why police are working with their hands tied behind their backs.
To think Alan Johnson was tipped to be PM.
He looks and sounds like a shop steward.
Despairing Pat
- Pat Morgan, spain, 02/11/2009 13:25
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Honesty and politics do not go together well.
- Tim, London, 02/11/2009 13:17
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Most Governments only take notice of "indendent" advice when it fits in with what they want to do.It is clear that the PM is setting the agenda on drugs and this advice did not fit with what he wants.
- Mike M, Bedford England, 02/11/2009 13:01
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"Brown's policy on drugs is in tatters, warns sacked adviser." Well, he would say this rubbish wouldn't hee ? he just got the sack, for heaven's sake.
- Keith Price, Luton England, 02/11/2009 12:54
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As with all other conflicts, in "the war on drugs", truth is the first casualty. And this from a government that has given birth to the term "binge drinking", won't stop prisoners smoking cigarettes and can't stop them taking drugs.
- C Nichol, London, 02/11/2009 12:53
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Well according to the Government the education establishment is worth zilch, after all this Gov has deleted the worth of exams so much so that the only recognised marks are 3***.
Hang on a mo, thats the disfunctional credit rating for high street banks.
- Bill, Hay~Heath UK, 02/11/2009 12:11
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Rather silly just picking one surely as BROWNS policies on EVERYTHING is in tatters.
- Toldasitis, London, 02/11/2009 11:30
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All Browns policys are in tatters
- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh UK, 02/11/2009 11:00
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I thinkon this one I agree (unusually) with the Government. Advisors are there to advise, and we vote in MPs and Ministers to decide, and the responibility lise there. If the decesion is wrong, then the buck stops with the Minister (and we the people voet them out), and not with the advisor.
- Very Very Angry At Paying Tax For Mp'S Expeses, Home Counties, 02/11/2009 10:55
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No surprises there then - Don't agree with Nu-Liebour's Ministry of Lies? Fired immediately.
Who remembers the victims of Nu-Liebour's other lie scandals?
-Dr David Kelly over Iraq WMD's
-Charles Clarke over lies about immigration numbers
The list goes on....
It is truly frightening how this rotten,stinking,oppressive sham of a government is silencing people who disagree with their agenda like a ruthless Communist Dictatorship.
- Anon Pc, London Compound,Londongrad,EUSSR, 02/11/2009 10:50
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Quote should read:
"there are millions at risk of being sucked into a world of hopeless despair through misgovernment by Labour."
- David, London, 02/11/2009 10:30
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Prof Nutt would be advised to stay away for secluded woodlands least something nasty happens to him. How dare he transgress the party line with an objective scientific assessment.
- John David, L, 02/11/2009 10:28
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This government has done many stupid and irresponsible acts either parliamentarian or otherwise; but the sacking of Professor Nutt has to be the most stupid of the lot. The Home Secretary who is not known for his political and intellectual astuteness decides to take issue with a report by an unpaid scientific advisor who published his committees findings which did not conform to the preconceived findings of a follower of John Knox and a retired postman.Is it because the treasury is worried that the tax revenues from alcohol would disappear as we become a nation of pill poppers and pot smokers? Or is the chief medical officer worried that the NHS won't be able to cope with the pill popping and the nation's new found love of the sweet scented cannabis?
The moral of the story is if you are trying to control or muzzle a free thinking nation don't appoint unpaid scientific advisors and expect them to do as they are told.
Johnson do the honourable thing and resign!
- Alexis Dogilewski, London England, 02/11/2009 10:25
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Time for the govt to wake up and have a very, very strong black coffee. Their policy on marijuana and ecstacy has been hit below the waterline, and the pumps won't work. Who on earth should heed it when it has been discounted on the best scientific evidence, which they have not even tried to refute? Meantime, legal outlets for medicinal (ahem) marijuana are springing up across the US and it's a fair bet that this bit of the long-lost 'War on Drugs' is going to be quietly wound down across the pond.... The policy is sinking, as anyone can see do long as they have eyes and a brain that work.
In fact, the only person being blinder here than the Govt is Chris Grayling, the Shadow spokesman, saying that Prof Nutt should have been sacked previously. He should be grasping the reality saying 'Legalise, squeeze out the criminals, control the quality and TAX'. God knows we are going to need every penny we can raise in this bankrupt island
- David, London, 02/11/2009 10:20
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The government is paying for the science, so why can't they just say what the government wants?
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark, 02/11/2009 09:17
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"now had a 'pre-defined political agenda' when they asked for its expert advice."
No, surely not, it's never happened under Labour before, well, unless you count the "expert advice" on WMD's in Iraq or any of the others occasions that it has.
- Bob, Cheam, 02/11/2009 09:05
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Another victim of the control & spin freaks at NuLabor. It's great to see somebody standing up to them.
- Mark Myword, London, 02/11/2009 08:55
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Ooooh I wish some one would sack this incompetent Government.....
- Themanoftruth, United Kingdom, 02/11/2009 08:42
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Once a postman, always a postman and to think some of the chatteringly classes were talking up his prospects of becoming Prime Minister. You'd have to laugh if it wasn't so tragic.
- Mikeh, Dubai, UAE, 02/11/2009 08:11
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