Good riddance to Professor Poison Cannabis is an evil lottery ticket whose top prize is a lifetime gibbering in a locked ward. And it pays out rather more often than the other lottery. So it is pleasing to see the dismissal of the fatuous Professor David Nutt, the Government's supposedly scientific adviser on drugs. Professor Nutt seems strangely unaware of the mounting evidence of the dangers of cannabis, particularly the work of Robin Murray, who recently savaged Professor Nutt's use of statistics and attacked the general sloppiness of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Professor Nutt's diversionary tactic of claiming that tobacco and alcohol are 'more dangerous' than some illegal drugs is the age-old excuse of the hippy generation. So what if they are? How does the existence of two legal poisons justify the creation of more? Why is it an argument against properly enforced laws to discourage them? It is vital that we do all that we can to warn the young against these dangers. It is too late to ban alcohol, though many of us would like to go back to strict licensing rules. The law worked against drunken driving and in reducing smoking. Our drug-corrupted political and media elite view Professor Nutt as a hero because he helps them excuse their own wrongdoing.
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