The government was at the centre of a furious backlash from leading scientists last night following its sacking of Britain's top drugs adviser.The decision by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, to call on Professor David Nutt to resign as chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has thrown the future of the respected independent body into severe doubt. There were claims last night that many of those who sit on the 31-strong council – which advises ministers on what evidence there is of harm caused by drugs – may resign en masse, raising serious doubts about how ministers will justify policy decisions.
Several were this weekend seeking urgent reassurances from the government that it will not try to control their agenda and will allow them to speak out before they decide whether to quit. One is said to have already resigned.
The government's decision to dismiss Nutt came after he wrote a paper for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) at King's College London that questioned the "artificial" separation of alcohol and tobacco from illegal drugs.
Nutt told the Observer he had received hundreds of messages of support and had been contacted by several members of the council. "I actually think it might be an untenable position," Nutt said of the chairmanship. "I can't believe that any independent-minded scientists would want to take it on. People will think, if you can't speak your mind and be honest about what you think, why take on the job? It might be that the council becomes unviable."
He said he had not approached members of the council – who include police officers and social services professionals as well as medical experts – but about a third had already contacted him.
"All the ones that have contacted me are considering their positions," he said. "There is uniform support, uniform horror at what happened. We have been abused by government, misused by government."
Nutt accused the former home secretary, Jacqui Smith, of "distorting and devaluing" scientific research. He said Smith's decision to reclassify cannabis meant she had fallen victim to a "skunk scare", and in another dig at the government claimed that advocates of downgrading ecstasy from class A to class B had "won the intellectual argument".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, Nutt was also fiercely critical of Gordon Brown's role in shaping drugs policy. "He is the first prime minister... that has ever in the history of the Misuse of Drugs Act gone against the advice of its scientific panel," he said.
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