Revisiting the David Nutt debate: Is it possible to rank different drugs by the harm they cause?
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - 16:30
in Psychology & Sociology
The scientific and political worlds were transfixed in late 2009 when UK drugs advisor Dr. David Nutt was sacked by Home Secretary Alan Johnson for his controversial views on the harmfulness of different drugs and the lack of evidence behind current drug policy, views first publicized in a Lancet report in 2007. Scientists at the time were unanimous that scholarly research such as Nutt's should not be subject to political attack, but a new scholarly article points out a more rational basis for criticizing Nutt's work on the harmfulness of drugs: it is scientifically flawed, the article's authors argue.