Sober concerns...

David Nutt was a government advisor on drugs until he was sacked, in 2009, for saying what the government of the day didn’t want to hear: that our views about recreational drugs - and their relative dangers - were mistaken.

A majority of pubs display a notice warning customers to “say no to drugs” and stating that anyone dealing in drugs on the premises will be reported to the police. The irony is lost on both pub landlords and their customers. The idea that alcohol, too, is a drug, is a truth we seem unable to grasp, with the result that too many people die of alcohol-related diseases. According to Nutt, in an article in today’s Guardian, alcohol is the leading cause of death in men under the age of 24, responsible for 26% of their early deaths.

Now free to do independent research on drug use, unencumbered by governmental diktats, David Nutt is presenting us with some uncomfortable conclusions. This graph, illustrating the relative dangers of ten commonly-used drugs, should represent the start of a long conversation in the public square. However, thanks to the power and influence of the alcohol lobby, that conversation will no doubt be postponed almost indefinitely…