[THS] UK: Government's New Drug Adviser Les Iversen

[Peter Webster]

Pubdate: Thu, 14 Jan 2010
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2009 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact: letters at thetimes.co.uk
Website: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: Richard Ford, Home Correspondent
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Advisory+Council+on+the+Misuse+of+Drugs
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/David+Nutt
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

GOVERNMENT'S NEW DRUG ADVISER LES IVERSEN WANTED CANNABIS LEGALISED

A retired academic who once called for cannabis to be legalised was 
appointed yesterday as the Government's new adviser on the harm 
caused by drugs.

Les Iversen, a former pharmacology professor at the University of 
Oxford, was made interim chairman of the Advisory Council on the 
Misuse of Drugs. He replaces Professor David Nutt, who was sacked for 
criticising the Government's decision to reclassify cannabis as a 
Class B substance.

After the Home Office announced his appointment it emerged that in a 
2003 lecture Professor Iversen said: "There have been no deaths to 
date caused by use of cannabis. Cannabis should be legalised, not 
just decriminalised, because it is comparatively less dangerous than 
legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco."

In an article in 2003 he wrote that cannabis had been incorrectly 
classified for nearly 50 years as a dangerous drug and that it was 
one of the "safer" recreational drugs.

Questioned about his remarks yesterday, Professor Iversen said that 
he no longer held the same views. He said during an interview on BBC 
Radio 5: "I don't remember saying that. It's certainly not my position now.

"We have now to confront the more potent forms of cannabis. We have 
the new evidence that arose since 2003 linking cannabis to 
psychiatric illness. I think it's quite free for a scientist to 
change his mind when faced with new facts."

He said that he accepted it was the Home Secretary's prerogative to 
make decisions about drug classification and to accept or reject 
scientific advice.

"The way I look at this is that the Government should have respect 
for the experts on the advisory group and the advisers should have 
respect for the Government's prerogative to govern."

The row over Professor Nutt's sacking provoked a crisis over the role 
of scientific advice within the Government. It prompted ministers to 
commission a review of how it deals with scientists and forced Alan 
Johnson, the Home Secretary, to give assurances to the remaining 
council members on how they would be treated in future.

Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat science spokesman, said: "What the 
scientific community wants to know is whether Professor Iversen has 
been guaranteed academic freedom and the right to state what the 
evidence says on drugs policy, even when this conflicts with government policy.

"Without that assurance, the crisis in confidence from scientific 
advisers in the Government will continue."

Martin Barnes, chief executive of the charity DrugScope and a member 
of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, said: "Les is a very 
experienced, knowledgeable and highly regarded member of the council. 
It has an important role in robustly informing a range of policy 
responses to drug use and drug harms -- it is crucial that its work continues."

The council is required to keep under review drug misuse in Britain 
and advise the Government on those drugs that appear likely to be 
misused and of which the misuse is having, or appears to experts 
capable of having, harmful effects sufficient to constitute a social problem. 
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