[UK News] Government drug adviser David Nutt sacked

[The Helper]

Professor David Nutt, the government's chief drug adviser, has been sacked a day after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.

Nutt incurred the wrath of the government when he claimed in a paper that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The home secretary has asked Professor Nutt to resign as chair of the ACMD [Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs].

"In a letter he [Alan Johnson] expressed surprise and disappointment over Professor Nutt's comments which damage efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs.

"We remain determined to crack down on all illegal substances and minimise their harm to health and society as a whole."

Nutt had criticised politicians for "distorting" and "devaluing" the research evidence in the debate over illicit drugs.

Whole story here.

[ReVolver]

The only reason people are tricked into thinking that alcohol and tobacco aren't that harmful is because the tobacco and the alcohol company pay to make those anti-drug ads and pay for anti-drug programs in school to teach kids about those illegal drugs, so they can keep the money they make off their products. Most of the anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol programs are usually donated funds or minor funds from the government.

Pretty smart I think.

[sjakie]

Originally Posted by ReVolver

The only reason people are tricked into thinking that alcohol and tobacco aren't that harmful is because the tobacco and the alcohol company pay to make those anti-drug ads and pay for anti-drug programs in school to teach kids about those illegal drugs, so they can keep the money they make off their products. Most of the anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol programs are usually donated funds or minor funds from the government.

Pretty smart I think.

But still, more harmful than ecstacy?

[The Helper]

Originally Posted by sjakie

But still, more harmful than ecstacy?

That is what the research shows. At least what little they have done. Most of the old drug research had to be thrown out as it was totally incorrect.

[phyrex1an]

Originally Posted by The Helper

That is what the research shows. At least what little they have done. Most of the old drug research had to be thrown out as it was totally incorrect.

I don't really think that this research is new or small, I have a popular science magazine from 2006 that have the exact same "top 5" as cited in that article (well, it's actually a top 20 but they only mention 5 in the article...). I've only skimmed the paper but it seems like it's not the paper that comes to the conclusion about the individual ranking of drugs. Instead it seems more focused on how hard it is to use scientific evidence in the legal process, how ironic

[Samael88]

One thing that bugs me about that is that they compare tobacco to extacy and alcohol.

Tobacco got this:
The nicotine when smoking one cigarett at once gives a minor relief due to the neuralnetwork in the body get's "damped".
In high doses it kills you, but what does not these days? Even milk can kill in high enought doses, really, really high tho but it still proves the point.
And it can cause cancer, yeah, but so does fried food, cans, led, carfumes, oranges(yes, it is true), honestly, everything causes cancer, it is only a question of how quick.

Extacy does to my understanding:
It can cause hallucinations, there already it is worse than the tobacco.
Extacy legalization would bring excuses such as: "Man, I did not mean to kill him, I thought he was a rabid clown, it was the E".

Alcohol does this:
It increases a persons confidence or "fades the judgement" if I may say so, thus making people do things easier than they normally would do. Say a person is thinking about killing his wife, he would probably do it sooner or later, but if he get's drunk he might get confident or stupid enough to do so immediately.

Thus actually making smoking cigarettes less dangerous than the other things. When bringing up this I think that he missed the part of how the different things affect our behavior as supposed to the side effects(such as cancer).

Of topic:
Is it anyone else than me that think there is some irony to his name?

[codemonkey]

David Nutt sacked

[Jackal]

Originally Posted by Samael88

One thing that bugs me about that is that they compare tobacco to extacy and alcohol.

Tobacco got this:
The nicotine when smoking one cigarett at once gives a minor relief due to the neuralnetwork in the body get's "damped".
In high doses it kills you, but what does not these days? Even milk can kill in high enought doses, really, really high tho but it still proves the point.
And it can cause cancer, yeah, but so does fried food, cans, led, carfumes, oranges(yes, it is true), honestly, everything causes cancer, it is only a question of how quick.

Except tobacco is harmful no matter how little you have. And it isn't a question of how quickly something causes cancer, rather how likely something is to cause cancer.

[kc102]

Legalize all drugs, and regulate them. It won't work for a bit but then it will. It worked when we illegalized them.

[Lyerae]

Originally Posted by kc102

Legalize all drugs, and regulate them. It won't work for a bit but then it will. It worked when we illegalized them.

This.

I don't like drugs. I don't use them, and I never will.
But the Governments needs to pull the stick out it's ass that makes them think that drugs are bad. Yeah, sometimes they are, but they can legalize them.
People'll get high, and the Government will get paid. Everyones happy.

Not to mention that drug dealers would be out of business.

[sjakie]

Originally Posted by codemonkey

David Nutt sacked

I actually thought it was an english verb. He got nuttsacked

[Lyerae]

My brother likes to call that "teabagging". Anyone who's play Halo 3 knows what this is.

And yes, he's done it to people before. Luckily I'm a light sleeper.

[TriggerHappy]

But still, more harmful than ecstacy?

The majority of people who do ecstasy do not have problems.

Though, as with any mild altering drug it can bring out conditions that you did not know you had.

The only MDMA related deaths are from dehydration, not from overdosing.

It can cause hallucinations, there already it is worse than the tobacco.
Extacy legalization would bring excuses such as: "Man, I did not mean to kill him, I thought he was a rabid clown, it was the E".

Hardly.. MDMA does not cause hallucinations. This is how MDMA feels;

It's like your perfectly normal, not vision alterations (except for eye vibrations) and you feel like you can connect with everyone. It feels like orgasmic for 2+ hours and your at peace with everyone. Every problem, fear, anxiety you have is now gone and you can finally relax and enjoy life.

The problem lies within buying from dealers you do not know, and the pill gets pressed will hallucinogenics, which is rare because a lot of hallucinogenics can't be pressed because the heat will destroy it (LSD).

I hate it when people think ecstasy is a hard drug, it's actually very safe, and in moderation you should not have and mental issues caused by the drug. Though as with anything, too much is harmful.

And even then, hallucinogenics are not bad for you. All of these people saying "That dude went insane from doing acid!" are stupid. That person went sane, they see past all of the bullshit in life and put their ego aside. When people have bad trips it's because they are fighting the experience because they have some shit they don't want to deal with, which LSD helps you confront your problems head on instead of hiding them.

The people that do get mental problems are the ones not ready to take hallucinogenics.

[Snowbizzle]

This is everything that is wrong with our government. The hypocrisy is just unbelievable. If I may grace you with a relevant quote:

"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." -Francis Young, Chief Administrative Law Judge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 1988.

He was completely ignored. This new guy speaks up -- he doesn't do ANYTHING, he just writes down the facts! -- and he gets fired.

I love my country, but good lord do I hate my government.

[Matemeo]

Originally Posted by Snowbizzle

This is everything that is wrong with our government. The hypocrisy is just unbelievable. If I may grace you with a relevant quote:

"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." -Francis Young, Chief Administrative Law Judge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 1988.

He was completely ignored. This new guy speaks up -- he doesn't do ANYTHING, he just writes down the facts! -- and he gets fired.

I love my country, but good lord do I hate my government.

QFT.




And please before you attempt to debate tobacco & alcohol vs Ecstasy/LSD do a little bit of research.