Drug debate does Johnson’s Nutt in

Britain’s Home Secretary Alan Johnson is facing a bad trip this Monday with the government’s drug advisory body threatening to melt down, leads the Guardian. A controversy erupted over the weekend following Mr Johnson’s decision to push out the body’s chairman, Professor David Nutt, for “campaigning against government policy”, particularly in relation to the classification of cannabis. Although Mr Johnson reclassified cannabis from a class C to class B drug - with heavier penalties for possession- earlier this year, Professor Nutt has publicly argued that cannabis, in addition to ecstasy and LSD, is less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes. Mr Nutt’s ousting led this weekend to two further resignations from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which accuses Johnson of “distorting scientific evidence on cannabis” for political ends. “It is thought the group's members may use a meeting next Monday to announce a mass resignation,” the London daily reports, which “would be a severe embarrassment for the government”.