As #alanjohnsonnuttsack continues to rumble on, there is a deep question emerging: how do we present science effectively. If we hold to the fact that all current science could be wrong, we get Clive James and others telling us we are promoting hatred. If we try and suggest that the evidence is really, really strong, we get likened to Nazis (to be fair, AN Wilson specifically says he doesn’t think scientists are Nazis, and illustrates the point with a picture of Adolf Hitler).
The media consistently reports drug issues out of proportion to their evidenced frequency and harm. It is clear to me that the “war on drugs” is not working, and that some for of regulation and decriminalisation is a more likely route to improving lives affected by drugs.
Surely the mixed message that Brown should avoid sending out is that politicians will make decisions based on how things look, rather than based on the opinions of experts in a field who bring understanding, logic and evidence to bear on a particular problem.