drug expert fired for shooting...straight

As a volunteer, Prof. Nutt (and those on his panel of experts) advised the UK government on issues regarding illegal drugs, so that they could make policy: what should be illegal, and what's just 'fun times with friends'

This guy decided to shoot straight from the hip and say that alcohol and smokes do more damage than most illegal drugs. Everybody with a reasonable brain sees that as true.
The only difference is that booze & fags are legal for those over 18.

Well, they certainly do damage, because Nutt lost his ''job."
To see what Nutt is talking about,

you only have to walk around popular areas on a weekend night here to see perfectly reasonable-looking adults falling down drunk. This doesn't happen in Canada at anywhere near the rate.
The impression most of us Canucks have is that, while we like our beers, a 30-year-old guy passed out in his own puke is pretty f^&**king sad, as is a woman squating to piss in the middle of the street. So, most of us don't do those sorts of things.
Unfortunately, they "pass" for culture in many sectors of society, over here.
The idea is to drink with friends to enjoy their company.

Drinking to get pissed is KID STUFF!

I thought at first that it was the paternalistic liquor laws (pubs closed at 10pm) that meant everybody was in a hurry to get pissed up. So, at closing time, the streets were awash with incoherent people when the night hadn't barely started.
A couple of years ago, Tony Blair decided to go for 24-hour liquor licenses. I thought, 24-hours is a bit silly, unless you want to improve graveyard-shift employment in the seedy underbelly of large cities.
Nevertheless, I was convinced it would at least cause people

to pace themselves,
even if it took people 6 months
and an NVQ in 'Whoa, Nelly' to learn to do so.

Problem, over here!

Brits, despite their efforts to throw off their
tight-arsedness of the past,
are so insecure, paranoid, skittish and otherwise
nervous like a cat on a beach ball,

they need about three pints of Bitters/Ale/WKD
to become something recognisable to me as humanoid. The transformation is astounding. I greatly prefer to talk to them after 3 those beers, when they're relaxed and jovial.

To their credit, most of them know this, but still don't know what to do about it.

UPDATE: If you look up the advisors' report, you'll discover what I think is the real reason why the government created the crisis which got rid of the Prof. Tobacco, which kills thousands each year, has been treated lightly for such a deadly product. It results in cancer, emphezema and other stuff, it is horribly habit-forming and full of deadly chemical additives. Of course it's also a big economic lobby. So, when Nutt placed it in class B, I imagine that lobby shat its proverbial pants and called up the appropriate minister and asked for Nutt to be canned lest there be a clamouring for more fines on the cancer-stick merchants.
My conclusion: Your government doesn't care about your health when there's money to be made by their rich friends. The fact that smokes're still on sale is proof enuff.
[pic- chart, taken from Guardian]

-Cos67 ~(%^D>

p.s. See my old story on the sordid situation of tobacco: "Toke on this"