You're more likely to die from horse riding than taking ecstasy

Greetings readers,

Fare the well? Am still living life in the fast lane, what with socialising, work and such like. However, this morning I thought I would take some time out to read, reflect and share some of my thoughts. So, the BBC's breaking news is that Professor David Nutt, the UK's former chief drugs adviser, and member of the independent drug advisory panel, has been forced to quit his post. This is in response to the fact that Professor Nutt spoke out about Gordon Brown's decision to re-classify cannabis from a Class C drug to a Class B. Indeed, the home secretary, Alan Johnson, wrote a letter to Nutt detailing how his comments had "undermined the scientific independence of the council". Nonsense.

The fact of the matter is that cannabis creates only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness and is actually less harmful than nicotine and alcohol, as Nutt put this in a recent lecture. If you don't believe me, read the scientific evidence. It's all there. No wait, that would be far too rational. Actually, ignore the independent, robust, scientific evidence, and enforce your archaic, myopic, presbytarian values onto the whole of British society. Gordon Brown - you are an imbecile living in the dark ages. In fact, this wasn't supposed to be such an anti-establishment polemic, but it really does rile me when politicians set up so called 'independent' advisory panels comprising of eminent scientists, and then decide to ignore their advice based on their own, sad, misguided pre-conceptions. Come on Alan, Jacqui, I'm sure you did a bit of 'puff' at Oxford, right? No, my mistake, you passively inhaled, and you didn't like the feeling....

But hold on a minute, two million people in this country alone do like the feeling. Don't they have a voice? And does sacking Professor Nutt really send out a particularly good message to future scientists? Not only does it seem foolish to completely ignore scientific evidence, but also somewhat abhorrent that the cabinet will not tolerate criticisms levelled against some of their (incorrect) policy making.

A sad day for policy indeed.

Thank you for reading,

F.