Four new appointments to the ACMD have been announced today by the Minister of Crime Prevention, James Brokenshire, to include:

• Dr Roger Brimblecombe, pharmacologist and a former holder of a number of senior positions in the pharmaceutical industry
• Professor Raymond Hill, neuropharmacologist and a former holder of senior positions in the pharmaceutical industry, current president of the British Pharmacological Society and a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics
• Mr Graham Parsons, Pharmacist with Special Interest (Substance Misuse), NHS Plymouth
• Dr Jason Aldiss, veterinary scientist, specialising in public health including veterinary medicines

Click here for full press release from the Home Office.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is under fire for putting his name to a proposal, as a euro MP from 1999 to 2004, for “decriminalising the use of certain substances” and “partially decriminalising the sale of cannabis”.  Put forward in 2002 in Brussels, the proposal called on the European Union states to control and regulate the production, sale and use of “currently illegal substances”; criticising “repressive” laws.  Clegg’s position as a Lib Dem member seems to conflict with his 2002 support for legalising drugs which is to make the ACMD “completely independent of government”.

Ex-adviser of the Advisory Council of the Misuse of Drugs speaks out and writes in the Guardian-The Observer on her reasons for her resignation. Despite Polly Taylor’s sadness in leaving the organisation in which she commends the members as hard working and experienced, she criticises the Council for announcing their decision on mephedrone to the Home Secretary when in fact their report was still being considered by the group.

Taylor admits that her reasons for leaving were based on the recently published Principles for the Treatment of Scientific Advice where it allows for advisers to be fired on the grounds that a minister has made the decision that they are undermining trust. She states that ‘expert value is without value unless it is truly independent. It should not be given to ensure the trust of politicians or to fit the mood of the day’s press’.

Seems like Easter wasn’t much of a break for the Advisory Council of the Misuse of Drug with the latest resignation of yet another member, Eric Carlin on the 1st of April, and the imminent controversy surrounding the Council’s chairman Prof Iversen’s link to a group campaigning against anti-drug regulations.

Resignation of Eric Carlin

As the seventh member of the ACMD to resign following the sacking of Professor David Nutt, Eric Carlin has expressed how unhappy he is with how the Council operates. He claims that the Home Secretary went ahead with press conferences on plans to ban mephedrone when the Council had not considered their own recommendations. Mr Carlin also criticises the Council’s approach as facilitating the potential criminalisation of increasing numbers of people, rather than getting to the root cause. Read Eric Carlin’s blog here about his resignation including his resignation letter to the Home Secretary.

ACMD’s Professor Iversen’s link to controversial charity

As the chief adviser to the Government on the misuse of drugs, it has been claimed that Prof Iversen is listed as a key adviser of the Beckley Foundation, a controversial charity committed to legalising drugs under the guise of ‘studying consciousness and altered states’. Ann Widdecombe (former Tory Home Office Minister) has called for the resignation of Prof Iversen as head of the ACMD and said: ‘The fact that he was prepared to lend his name to a body pushing for softer policies on drug use means he should not be advising the Government on this issue’.  Prof Iversen claims he no longer has anything to do with the organisation but its website still lists him as one of its scientific advisers.

So is the ACMD advice to the Government to classify mephedrone as a Class B drug premature and unfounded upon lack of scientific evidence?  Critics have said that the advice subjected was to please ministers or the mood of the day’s press in that the suspected mephedrone-related deaths have not been confirmed.

Some say that a ban will hand the market to criminal gangs pushing the prices up and the purity down.

Roger Howard, UK Drug Policy Commission, has said that “we need to avoid hasty overreacting to very…genuine public and political concerns” and that advice should be based on science and evidence.

Tom Lloyd, International Drug Policy Consortium, claims that this ban would be “ineffective, very costly and counter-productive”. He suggests that ‘grown up education’ is required where one must look at the reasons for people taking the drug rather than a straight ban.