Sorry for reviving a dead thread, but this is something that I take great interest in and feel very strongly about. To get back to the original subject... I'm afraid I have to take umbrage with this opinion. Professor Nutt was comparing the statistical physical risk - that is not twisting statistics to make a misleading statement. Nutt was speaking from a purely scientific position - when you compare the number of people that end up in hospital because of horse riding injuries against those who end up in hospital because of ecstasy, then you have to conclude that - based on the evidence/data observed - horse riding has a greater risk factor attached to it than taking ecstasy. That's not twisting statistics, that's science: presenting and interpreting the results observed. As for the subject of intoxication, how many stoners do you see in A&E on a Friday or Saturday night? Now look at how many drunk people you see in there. Even better, take a look at how many people under the influence of alcohol are involved in fatal car accidents - now compare this to how many people under the influence of cannabis or ecstasy that are involved in fatal car accidents. You will probably find that there are an almost exponentially greater number of drink-driving related deaths than there are "drug-driving" deaths. This has probably been debated to death, but the key issue here is this: The ACMD is there to give scientific advice to the government on illegal drugs; this scientific advice has been completely ignored in favour of gaining political credibility/position. To rub salt into the wound, they then sacked someone from the chair of the ACMD for doing his job and giving advice. Science and engineering has had an integral part of this country's success and reputation over the last hundred and fifty or so years, from the industrial revolution to space exploration and modern advances in theoretical physics. In fact, if it wasn't for a British scientist working at CERN twenty years ago, we wouldn't even be having this discussion right now. The Nutt-sack affair is not the only issue that has rankled my hackles. Funding for science in industry and education is being cut, participation and contribution in space exploration is declining, fewer and fewer students are taking up science courses, we are seeing the erosion in value of scientific fact and reasoning, we are diluting knowledge by allowing religious falsehoods to influence our schools and science education... If we ignore for a moment the fact that scientific/critical thinking is a valuable asset to all people in all walks of life, how can I put my trust in a government that seems so willing to ignore science and all that it can do for us? One quick point on religion, before I get utterly fried... I am an atheist. To me, there is no god - at all. That does not mean that I do not respect religious freedoms, or your right to believe whatever you want. However religion - specifically, creationism (which includes intelligent design) and the denial of evolution - has no place in science education or scientific theory. It belongs, if anywhere, in Religious Education lessons.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6863316.ece This is part of the reason why science and engineering aren't respected as they should be by the government. Most government members have law degrees, to help them straddle the line between wrong and right when claiming expenses. A good proportion of the people in government are career politicians, they worked there way up from an office temp for one of the older MP's, until they reach the top (or at least get high enough up to claim a decent whack in expenses). In the beginning they may have wanted to change the country for the better, but now all they care about is keeping there seat, saying the right things to the public "kill all drug users" and "kill the immigrants", and kissing the backside of whoever they think might get them into the cabinet / shadow cabinet, in order to gain recognition and more cash. So when these people go to university, they don't pick a course that they think will give them a greater insight into the world, so when they eventually become an MP they have more knowledge and understanding in order to help there fellow man, no, they pick the course that they think will give them the best chance of getting onto someone's team so they can work there way up by sticking there noses as far up there boss's arsecrack that they get so used to smell of shite that any place that doesn't smell like that feels somehow strange, not that any place won't have said smell with all the **** stuck up there noses from there rampant brown nosing sessions. This leads to another failure of the career politician, in order to get into parliment they have to be voted for by the public, and the easiest way for them to be voted for is for them to be put in a so called "safe seat" where the chances of them not been voted for a slim. In order to get this seat, apart from all the brown nosing, they have to talk and act like the old guard that will give them the seat, giving the same policies as everyone else in the party and acting like any other party is trying to drag the country down into the dumps, even though secretly they have some policies you agree with, but you can't say that you agree because you would be called a traitor and get shunned by the rest of your party, then who's going to give you the latest tax dodging tips or latest line to win you more votes. Its a shame more people from a more varied background don't get into politics, but even if it wasn't for all these career dicks stealing all the seats, most sciency types have seen all the **** that goes on with these career cocks, they're cynical about being able to change anything with all those other cocks being in parliament, and even if they think they could change something, they're hardly going to want to join one of the established parties, as they're all as bad as each other, so what are they going to do, make a new party with no advertising or public appearances and get no votes? Anyway, I am a man/woman of science, im working on the cure for AIDs so i can save millions of people from suffering and death, **** politics. Maybe next I'll work on the cure for brain-dead politicians......
