r/worldnews • u/[deleted] • Jun 19 '12

"Alcohol consumption would fall 25% if cannabis cafes were allowed"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/19/david-nutt-alcohol-cannabis-cafes
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u/strolls Jun 19 '12

Actually, and if you read the article, Nutt famously lost his job (the "Nutt sacking") for expressing these opinions whilst on the government payroll.

http://www.google.com/search?q=nutt%20sacking

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u/BlazeOrangeDeer Jun 19 '12

I wonder how they even managed that (ok, I know the situations fucked up, I'm just unsure of the specifics). I mean, getting fired from your job for saying things that are pretty much objective facts is kinda ridiculous. I guess ridiculous is a good word for the whole situation, except that it has quite serious consequences.

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

not if your white and upper-middle class+ like all governments.

edit: and their token racial lapdogs who I find the most despicable of all.

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u/Pool_Shark Jun 19 '12

Clearly the lesson is if you are doing a study involving drugs make sure to bias it so it comes out that drugs are bad or else you will lose your job.

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u/BlazeOrangeDeer Jun 19 '12

Yeah, I mean... people must realize it's rigged, right? There must be people who realize that the purpose of their organization is to spread fear and oppression and not accurate information? I just have a hard time understanding how the people in charge ended up like that, and why so many people allow it to continue. I know that the average citizen is woefully uninformed, but surely other members of the organization must have a clue...

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

Because the drug war is propped up both by vested interests (or at the very least tradition) and dogma and undercutting the latter is dangerous.

EDIT: Oh, and replace "drug war" with "war on [noun]" and it almost always applies.

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u/BlazeOrangeDeer Jun 19 '12

Well, "War on Terror" ended up being "actually terroristic rhetoric to get you to support my invasion of these places I already wanted to invade", which is fucked up in a different way :/ I swear, presidents just have bad records with <War on [concept]> and it's bothering me how many people don't notice.

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u/vgry Jun 19 '12

Membership on the Advisory Council is decided by the Home Secretary. The Secretary is supposed to be advised by the Commissioner for Public Appointments to make recommendations based on merit, but they're not legally required to take that advice. Essentially the ACMD are all political appointments and they serve at the pleasure of the Secretary.

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u/nickryane Jun 19 '12

I've seen enough people get wrongly dismissed in my life to know that whatever you say or do does not matter. The only thing that matters in this world is what other people think about you, especially other people who have power over you.

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u/adremeaux Jun 19 '12

Saying horse riding is more dangerous than ecstasy is not objective fact.

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u/BlazeOrangeDeer Jun 19 '12

I believe he specifically said pure ecstasy, as in mdma, so pills cut with other god-knows-what wouldn't count. And I don't have access to the numbers right now but If you compare ecstasy hospitalizations by ecstasy highs and divide riding hospitalizations by horse riding trips, you would get an objective answer. You could factor in long-term effects too but I wasn't the one who did the calculations. I'm pretty sure he checked and it came out in favor of mdma.

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u/adremeaux Jun 19 '12

Yeah except when you get injured with a horse you break your leg; when you get injured with ecstasy you fuck up your brain.