File this under another reason to be against the war on drugs and government policy involving things we can and can not put into out bodies. The United Kingdom got a little irked when they told a group of scientists to do some research into various drugs. Unfortunately for the government the research didn’t give the results they wanted so now they’re making a new proposal that would remove the requirement for scientific advice when doing drug classifications:
The proposals will be of concern to the many doctors and scientists who have criticised the government’s treatment of scientific evidence in the wake of the sacking, last year, of ACMD chairman David Nutt. The then home secretary, Alan Johnson, removed Nutt from the post after the scientist criticised politicians for distorting research evidence and claiming alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than some illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.
And I love this wording:
“Removing the requirement on the home secretary to appoint to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs at least one person with experience in six specific areas will allow us greater flexibility in the expertise we are able to draw on.
In other words it will allow the government the flexibility to classify things however the fuck they please.
I just want to emphasis the main point in this post, the United Kingdom government didn’t like the results of scientific research so they are moving to abolish the requirement of scientific input on drug classification.