By Alex Stevenson Skip related content
The future of the government's advisory body on drugs is in doubt today, as resignations and outspoken criticism of minister continue to damage the Home Office.
Professor David Nutt, the former chairman of the advisory council on the misuse of drugs (ACMD) who was sacked by home secretary Alan Johnson late on Friday, said the government "may lose the rest of its scientific advisers" in an article for the Times.
Earlier predictions had already proved correct. Dr Les King, another member of the ACMD, and Marion Walker, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's representative on the ACMD, resigned in protest at his dismissal over the weekend.
Mr Johnson launched a defence of his own decision to fire Prof Nutt.
"Professor Nutt was not sacked for his views, which I respect but disagree with," he wrote in a letter in the Guardian newspaper.
"He was asked to go because he cannot be both a government adviser and a campaigner against government policy."
Prof Nutt was critical of the classification of cannabis as a class B substance. He said those who thought "scaring kids" would stop them using drugs were "probably wrong" and claimed taking ecstasy was less dangerous than riding a horse.
His dismissal threatens the emergence of a wider frustration among the scientific community about the government's reluctance to listen to its advice.
In the short-term, the major threat appears to be the demise of the ACMD. Prof Nutt warned scientists "who can only speak the truth" appeared "unlikely" to be able to work for "this, or future, home secretaries".
"Others have suggested a way forward: create a truly independent advisory council. This is the only realistic way out of the current mess," he pressed.
The ACMD meets to consider its future on November 10th.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pandemic of swine flu may be hitting a peak in the Northern Hemisphere, global health officials said on Friday, but they cautioned it was far from over.
