Drug advice? Don't ask a scientist!

The British government has announced plans to scrap the current law that says the ‘Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs’ (ACMD) must contain scientists. The current legal requirement is the board contains at least one doctor, dentist, vet, pharmacist, drugs industry expert and chemical scientist. Soon there may not be one scientist on the whole panel. This proposal is just the latest instalment in an going saga between scientists and policy makers in the UK. Scientific findings over substances such as cannabis and mephedrone (MCAT/miaow miaow) have often been ignored by politicians as they are ‘inconvenient,’ this disparity between parties culminated in the sacking of the council chairman which in turn resulted in a number of high profile scientists resigning from the ACMD panel. This latest proposal from the government will be another step in ensuring that media circus and not hard facts govern serious scientific policy decisions.

What this proposal means in real terms is that drugs will be classified according to how much media interest there is in both the drug, and its consequences. Rather than the true costs of the drug, both on health and the economy. Without knowledgeable, learned scientists this panel will comprise merely of puppets. Puppets agreeing with whoever is pulling the strings.

The governments defence on such a proposal is that it will offer ‘flexibility’ to an ever changing drug scene. I would agree being flexible to a changing environment is in principle a good thing, although sacrificing knowledge for speed of decision making can only lead to mistakes. Mistakes that would lead to a drugs classification system incorrectly labelling the serious harm from drugs to individuals and society.

This proposal by the government is a reaction from facts that don’t appease media or government plans. Facts that will be glossed over to allow ‘flexibility’ on the ‘drugs landscape.’ Will there be an outcry over this? I hope so. Central government control dancing to whatever is the latest media hyped tune will have far reaching consequences for us all. Could this backward step of ignorance of science to policy be the thin end of the wedge when it comes to censorship of facts?  

The real question here is who is the puppet master? Government or media? I know the public are the audience. With only a few able to see the strings.