About this event
- What role should scientific evidence play in the formation of criminal justice and related policy?
- What happens when evidence and politics collide?
- Is it inevitable that politics will always trump evidence?
This roundtable will revisit the 2009 dismissal of Professor David Nutt as a government drugs advisor, after he stood up for the importance of scientific evidence in the formation of drugs policy.
The roundtable will explore how we can ensure that public policy is grounded in the evidence and reason, rather than politics and prejudice.
Speakers
- Professor David Nutt, Imperial College London
- Dr Deborah Drake, The Open University
- Professor Reece Walters, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane
Dr Drake and Professor Walters will discuss their research into the David Nutt affair. Drawing on interviews they conducted with many of the key players, they conclude that high-stakes political issues can open up unprecedented opportunities for critical voices to engage in unbridled critique and to mobilise movements of dissent.
Professor Nutt will discuss the lessons learned from the 2009 events and the current prospects for evidence-informed policy.
Other speakers to be announced.
About the David Nutt affair
In October 2009, Professor David Nutt, eminent neuropsychopharmacologist and world leading expert on drugs, was dismissed as Chair of the UK government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs following his 2009 Eve Saville annual lecture to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies’ Eve Saville lecture. In his lecture he challenged the existing drug classification system and proposed an alternative, science-based classification.
Professor Nutt's speech, and subsequent media coverage, led to his dismissal by the then Home Secretary, Alan Johnson. He went on to establish DrugScience, the only completely independent, science-led drugs charity, which brings together leading drugs experts from a wide range of specialisms to carry out groundbreaking original research into drug harms and effects.
In 2013 Professor Nutt was awarded the John Maddox Prize for standing up for the role of science in informing drugs policy.
Venue, time and date
United Kingdom
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