Alcohol is the “gateway drug” that remains the greatest threat to society, and the Government’s failure to address the problem epitomises its disregard for scientific evidence, Professor David Nutt said yesterday. Professor Nutt said that the comparison he made between the harm caused by alcohol and Ecstasy, which led to his dismissal as head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, was incontrovertible. He questioned the Government’s arbitrary approach to the assessment and control of harmful substances, and how ministers might think that giving alcohol a harm ranking was a distraction.
“When I say alcohol is more dangerous than Ecstasy, cannabis and LSD, I mean it, and the council means it,” Professor Nutt said. “The Government has to wake up to this time bomb and the health risks of alcohol. Across the political spectrum everyone knows that alcohol is the biggest killer.”
Professor Nutt said he felt that alcohol prices could be raised to triple the price at which some drinks were sold, with taxation the most obvious way of achieving this. He compared the treatment of his expertise to that of the Chief Medical Officer’s report on alcohol abuse. Earlier this year Sir Liam Donaldson found his recommendations for a minimum price per unit of alcohol, based on several scientific studies, dismissed by Downing Street the day before it was published.
