Series: The big issuePrevious Index The big issue: Cannabis debate. Professor Nutt got it completely wrongComments (7) I agree with the government for sacking Professor David Nutt, who is telling people that cannabis is coogi dangerous than alcohol or cigarettes (”Ministers face rebellion on drug chief’s sacking”, News). I have manic depression, diagnosed after I had my first breakdown, aged 15. Twenty four years on and I am still ed hardy. Cannabis has been instrumental in my Affliction. I smoked my first joint a couple of months before my initial breakdown. Since then, during hypomanic phases, I smoked more, resulting in being arrested about five times and sent to the locked ward of the Royal Edinburgh mental asylum around 10 times. Almost every bad episode of my illness has been preceded by smoking cannabis, though I have never taken it regularly or heavily. Three years ago, my psychiatrist said he would not continue to treat me if I ever tooked hardy clothing again. I have never taken it since. It is obvious when you spend time in mental asylums that the people there are atrociously affected when they take cannabis. It is teenagers who are most damaged. David Nutt should visit some locked wards and speak to some psychiatrists and their patients. I have smoked cigarettes and drunk moderately since an early age, but these have caused nothing like the damage of cannabis. It is the immediate hit, the spiralling thoughts and inner revelations that are so dangerous. Archie Linklater, Gorgie, Edinburgh ¦ You say in your leader (”Why do politicians shun science?”, News) that the dismissal of Professor Nutt “demonstrates how profoundly disfigured our politics is becoming”, yet you also insult Professor Nutt when you say he did not “get the politics and did not help his case with some ill-judged intervention”. This throwaway remark is surely as worthless as that of the politicians criticised in the same article. Prof Nutt is an eminent scientist in his field. He has simply produced the scientific evidence relating to drugs. It is not his job to “get the politics”, nor to time his “intervention”. Your judgmental remarks add to the hysterical witch hunt of scientists in many parts of the media and devalue the rest of your writing on the subject, which has been generally cogent and thoughtful. Prof Nutt should be hailed as the modest hero that he is. He should be reinstated immediately, given a public apology and his policies adopted forthwith. This episode is horribly reminiscent of the shameful treatment of another eminent scientist, Dr David Kelly, and the lack of science-based evidence for weapons of mass destruction. ¦ Professor David Nutt seemed to have lost all sense of reason in his article “Since Brown took over, our advice has been undermined by government” (News commentary). He says that cannabis is “never lethal”. Tell that to the families of users who have taken their own lives or killed someone while under the influence of the drug. He says that possession “of a single joint” can now lead to five years’ imprisonment. This is the maximum for possession and judges have a range of punishment from absolute discharge to the five-year maximum. In most cases, the offence is dealt with by a police caution. There is more to politics than academic evidence. There are public attitudes to the issue. It is too late to control drugs such as nicotine and alcohol effectively but let’s keep other popular drugs on the danger list.