DrugScience

DrugScience
Formation15 January 2010; 14 years ago (2010-01-15)
Chief Executive Officer
David Badcock [1]
Key people
Barry Everitt, David Nutt
Websitewww.drugscience.org.uk
Formerly called
Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD)

DrugScience or Drug Science (originally called the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD)) is a UK-based drugs advisory committee proposed and initially funded by hedge fund manager Toby Jackson.[2][3] It is chaired by Professor David Nutt and was officially launched on 15 January 2010 with the help of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. The primary aim of the committee is to review and investigate the scientific evidence of drug harms without the political interference that could result from government affiliation.[2][4][5][6]

The establishment of the committee followed the controversial sacking of Professor Nutt, on 30 October 2009 as chair of the UK's statutory Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs by UK Home Secretary, Alan Johnson after the Equasy controversy.[7][8] The controversy followed his Eve Saville Memorial Lecture (2009) at the Centre.[9]

DrugScience initially focused on reviewing official risk estimates for psychedelic drugs, ecstasy and cannabis, and increasing warnings of the dangers of ketamine.[3] In 2013, DrugScience launched the peer-review academic journal Drug Science, Policy and Law[10] published by SAGE. They currently have three working groups Medical Cannabis,[11] Medical Psychedelics,[12] and Enhanced Harm Reduction.[13]

  1. ^ "Drug Science Team".
  2. ^ a b Sacked scientist promises impartial drugs advice The New Scientist, January 2010
  3. ^ a b Jack, Andrew (16 January 2010). "Hedge fund chief backs drugs panel". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 12 July 2010. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  4. ^ David Nutt (15 January 2010). "The best scientific advice on drugs". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
  5. ^ http://www.drugscience.org.uk/ Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs Homepage
  6. ^ Nutt, D. J.; King, L. A.; Phillips, L. D. (2010). "Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis". The Lancet. 376 (9752): 1558–1565. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.690.1283. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6. PMID 21036393. S2CID 5667719.
  7. ^ Nutt, D. (2008). "Equasy – an overlooked addiction with implications for the current debate on drug harms". Journal of Psychopharmacology. 23 (1): 3–5. doi:10.1177/0269881108099672. PMID 19158127. S2CID 32034780.
  8. ^ "Support the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs". The center for crime and justice studies. 15 January 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  9. ^ http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/tls/tls_20120918-0930a.mp3 David Nutt on The Life Scientific with Jim Al-Khalili, September 2012, BBC Radio 4
  10. ^ Editorial. "SAGE & Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs launch new journal Drug Science, Policy and Law (August 1, 2013)". STM Publishing News. STM Publishing News. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  11. ^ "Medical Cannabis Working Group".
  12. ^ "Medical Psychedelics Working Group".
  13. ^ "Enhanced Harm Reduction Working Group".