Scientific advisor on drugs sacked for telling truth

[quisquose]

The story continues:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8447222.stm

 

Prof Nutt's new drugs group 'to rival' official panel

 

Five members of the Government's official drugs advisory panel are to join a new independent group set up by sacked drugs adviser, David Nutt.

 

Prof Nutt said the new group would be "very powerful" and would take over the role of the official Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

 

Good luck mate.

[spindrift]

no

 

............

 

An important limitation of many studies is that they have failed to distinguish the direction of association between cannabis use and psychosis," the authors write in the latest edition of the journal Schizophrenia Research.

 

They point out that "although using cannabis is associated with a greater risk of developing psychosis, there is also evidence of increased cannabis use following psychosis onset."

 

Not as predicted

 

Frisher and colleagues compared the trends of cannabis use with general practitioner records of schizophrenia and psychosis.

 

They argue if cannabis use does cause schizophrenia, then an increase in cannabis use should be followed by an increase in the incidence of schizophrenia.

 

According to the study, cannabis use in the UK between 1972 and 2002 has increased four-fold in the general population, and 18-fold among under-18s.

 

Based on the literature supporting the link, the authors argue that this should be followed by an increase in schizophrenia incidence of 29 per cent between 1990 and 2010.

 

But the researchers found no increase in the rates of schizophrenia and psychosis diagnosis during that period. In fact, some of the data suggested the incidence of these conditions had decreased.

 

"This study does not therefore support the specific causal link between cannabis use and the incidence of psychotic disorders," the authors say.

 

"This concurs with other reports indicating that increases in population cannabis use have not been followed by increases in psychotic incidence."

 

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/01/2673441.htm?site=sydney

[Bloomdido]

The story continues:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8447222.stm

 

 

 

Good luck mate.

 

Excellent news. An advisory group that isn't groomed to tell the government what it wants to hear.

[Halibut]

http://www.badscience.net/2009/06/this-is-my-column-this-is-my-column-on-drugs-any-questions/

 

Ben Goldacre wrote the above article about the Government ignoring the evidence on drugs back in June. In his final paragraph he writes:

 

Drugs instantiate the classic problem for evidence based social policy. It may well be that prohibition, and the inevitable distribution of drugs by criminals, gives worse results for all the outcomes we think are important, like harm to the user, harm to our communities through crime, and so on. But equally, it may well be that we will tolerate these worse outcomes, because we decide it is somehow more important that we publicly declare ourselves, as a culture, to be disapproving of drug use, and enshrine that principle in law. It’s okay to do that. You can have policies that go against your stated outcomes, for moral or political reasons: but that doesn’t mean you can hide the evidence, it simply means you must be clear that you don’t care about it.

 

What a good point. It's hard to imagine a British government ever saying 'Look we know our drug policies are extremely damaging and cost millions of quid perpetuating crime and misery - but drugs are just wrong okay, so live with it'.

[Bloomdido]

Have you seen the latest apointee to the Government Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)? Dr Hans-Christian Raabe, a Manchester GP and member of the Maranatha Community, an inter-denominational Christian movement was appointed last week.

 

Briefing documents for MPs produced by Raabe on behalf of the CHW extol the benefits of marriage in fighting addiction. One states: “Marriage is associated with greater happiness, less depression, less alcohol abuse and less smoking.”

 

The CHW also makes strong claims about the health risks of “the homosexual lifestyle”. A briefing document states: “The media and the gay movement portray the homosexual lifestyle as happy, healthy and fulfilled. However, the homosexual lifestyle is associated with a large number of very serious physical and emotional health consequences.”

 

Raabe also co-authored a paper that claimed: “While the majority of homosexuals are not involved in paedophilia, it is of grave concern that there is a disproportionately greater number of homosexuals among paedophiles and an overlap between the gay movement and the movement to make paedophilia acceptable.”

 

I shall complain to my MP.