http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/01/alcohol.harm/index.html?hpt=C1
David Nutt whom was fired from his position as Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the a body designed to advise the government on scientific evidence and the classification of drugs.
On several occasions the government has asked the ACMD to reassess some drugs' classifications, and when the scientific findings didn't match up with what the government wanted them to show, they promptly ignored them and did what they wanted anyway.
For example, the government asked if cannabis should be reclassified to a stricter classification, the ACMD said no it should stay where it is, the government which clearly only asked the ACMD in order to use their opinions as political capital to push the change through was upset that it didn't say what they wanted, ignored it and increased the classification anyway. (this is the story of how the UK ended up with cannabis being classified the same as speed)
Anyway when Prof Nutt and some other high ranking scientists on the Council spoke out about the government's wilful ignoring of scientific evidence the government fired him, and others resigned in protest.
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