Gordon Brown, Drugs and the Absence of Reality

Nothing like taking the advice of experts now, is there? Unless, of course, you happen to be the incumbent Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. In which case scientifcally backed advice is only welcome if it agree with your own desperate attempts to please tabloids by being tough on drugs. Witness the Professor Nutt debacle. Sacked because his scientifically backed opinions do not match with those of the PM. In Nutt's own words:

"Until Gordon Brown took office there has never been a recommendation about drug classification from the council that has been rejected by government," he said.

"Gordon Brown comes into office and soon after that he starts saying absurd things like cannabis is lethal... it has to be a Class B drug. He has made his mind up.

"We went back, we looked at the evidence, we said, 'No, no, there is no extra evidence of harm, it's still a Class C drug.'

"He said, 'Tough, it's going to be Class B.'"

Terrific stuff. Against scientific advice and common sense, the witless Gordon Brown decides Cannibas is lethal. What a moronic think to say. If Cannabis was lethal, then this country would have a substantially smaller population and universities would have next to no students in them. Besides, Brown as worked with Cabinet Ministers (and indeed, employed them to work in his Cabinet) who have taken Cannabis and lived to tell the tale. Surely he has noticed that, well, his colleagues aren't dead, despite having had the occasional toke? Cannabis lethal? Just what the fuck is the Prime Minister on?

Of course, this is all about political expediency, and it is the sort of thing that happens all the time in politics. The Tories won't be immune to a bit of posturing on drugs when they take over, and cracking down on drugs is always a sure fire way of getting the tabloids on side. I guess this is what Gordon meant when he said that he was a conviction politician - he follows his convictions just so long as they appeal to the readership of the Daily Mail and even if they aren't, in any way, backed up in reality. Which means another way of defining Brown's idea of a"conviction politician" would be "media driven, delusional wankstain."