Below we can find the illustrated drug classification that brought mayhem to Professor David Nutt´s life, former chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD):
Red to yellow scale: Most to least physically harmful
0 to 3 scale: Most to least inductive
of physical dependency
Below you can find a couple of past articles on the particular incident with Professor David Nutt:
"Sacked – for telling the truth about drugs"
www.independent.co.uk
"Scientists quit government drugs body over David Nutt sacking"
www.timesonline.co.uk
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The human brain is certainly one of the most complex and mysterious subjects of study in the history of science.
However and especially over the past 15 years, there has been an enormous advancement in understanding how our brain work at a chemical level.
As we know today, our brain cells communicate with each other by vital chemicals (neurotransmitters) that act as messengers. These messengers belong to two different types:
The “Happy Messengers” (Biogenic Amines/Endorphin System) are messengers that communicate happy feelings from and to our brain cells.
These chemicals are:
Serotonin, Noradrenalin and Dopamine
The “Sad Messengers” are messengers that communicate bleak and depressing feelings from and to our brain cells.
The balance between the two is what makes us either an emotionally healthy person or a depressed one.
Common chemical imbalances related to emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression include reduced neurotransmitters lile dopamine, Serotonin, GABA, among others, as well as increased levels of toxic neurochemicals such as Homocysteine.
Increased cortisol stress hormone levels would also play a role and even lower levels of Magnesium, Zinc or Potassium and deficient levels of essential vitamins such as B6, B9, B12 and Vitamin-C can be accountable for these disorders.
But, whether the causes of chemical imbalance are down to poor diet, genetic make-up, psychosomatic reactions to an insane reality or other yet to conclude, this article occupies just one topic; a topic rather controversial but which forms part of our everyday lives, whether we like it or not: drugs.
Drugs, whether recreational or prescribed, are what we use in an attempt to re-establish the chemical balance in our brain.
That is the simple explanation that lay behind all the theories of drug addiction, because who wants to feel depressed, anxious, afraid, nervous or stressed out most of the time?
Some people just seem to cope better than others but the immense majority has, at least once in their lifetimes, made use of drugs, whether prescribed, legal or illegal, in order to attain some “balance”, some “contentment”, some “peace”, some “confidence”, some sense of “freedom” or “relief”.
Alcohol is also a drug. And as we are about to see, one of the most harmful and addictive that exist.
Setting aside the issues regarding the roots of drug-addiction, which in themselves would compound another entire whole subject of discussion (another on which we are also rather misinformed), let´s tackle the real facts about the true, scientifically proven, classification of drugs in terms of their harmfulness and physical dependence.
After all, it is the disclosing of the scientifically proven facts about drugs that caused a particular government to sack their health advisory chairman.
The goverment body has changed since this embarrassing incident. What will the new conservative-liberal coallition, now placed to govern our lifes, do about this issue? We hope they took good note of the indignation that the unjustified dismissal, executed by the previous goverment, caused among scientists and general public alike.
Misinformation or blatant alteration of truth has never been, experientially, very successful towards the prevention of drug abuse within a health point of view.
According to the Academy of Medical Sciences BSAD group´s report:
“The public’s ability to make informed choices requires the provision of accurate and balanced information about the potential benefits and harms of psychoactive drugs.”
Therefore, the question lingers in our minds: What are the gains of covering the truth on the real classification of drugs, according to their harmful and dependency effects?
Again, whether we like it or not, these are the scientifically proven facts. No theories, no hypothetical scenarios, no guesses, just pure scientific facts.
Which brings us to the next question: Why some of the most physically harmful and most inductive of dependency drugs are legal, prescribed and even pushed to be “socially approved” at some point, whilst the least physically harmful and least inductive of dependency are illegal and violently condemned?
"To argue against any breach of liberty from the ill use that may be made of it is to argue against liberty itself, since all is capable of being abused."
-- Lord George Lyttleton (1709-1773)
Considering that alcohol, tobacco and some prescribed drugs appear to be some of the most dangerous and potentially addictive substances than cannabis, LSD and Ecstasy, it is no wonder than the establishment, which legalise and tax the first three, while condemning and demonising the latter for mere political purposes (what else if they are the least harmful?), is caught by surprise, to say the very least, by the fact that some professionals just refuse to lie to the public.
Below we are offering you a very interesting article (from 2006) on the War on Drugs (US) that we found when doing our own research.
Real people, Real stories, Real situations, right after our Real scientific facts:
"Telling the Truth About the War on Drugs"
www.huffingtonpost.com/walter-cronkite
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