We are writing to lend our support to Niamh Eastwood, executive director of Release – the UK centre of expertise on drugs and drug laws – following the Home Office barring her from the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) (Drugs expert barred from policy panel after criticising Home Office, 11 June).
The ACMD acts as an independent advisory board to the Home Office, whose proper functioning relies on the participation of the UK’s leading experts. The Home Office’s decision to screen candidates based on “relevant social media content” (and beyond to unrelated content including Brexit and Windrush) is a worrying act of political interference in an impartial and apolitical body.
The UK is experiencing levels of avoidable drug-related deaths not seen for decades, constituting a third of all drug-related deaths in Europe. That Eastwood simultaneously supported the ACMD’s findings on the need to implement drug consumption rooms and criticised the Home Office’s inaction on this issue does not constitute “lobbying”, or compromise her ability to provide unbiased advice to the government.
Eastwood is one of the UK’s leading voices on evidence-based drug policies and harm reduction. The ACMD’s ability to provide the best available advice to the government, and the government’s ability to support its most vulnerable citizens, is made weaker by her absence. We strongly condemn this decision and invite the Home Office to reconsider.
David Badcock CEO, Drug Science
Prof David Bewley-Taylor Director of the Global Drug Policy Observatory
Naomi Burke-Shyne Executive director, Harm Reduction International
Ronnie Cowan MP Vice-chair, all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform
Prof Ilana Crome Professor of addiction psychiatry, Keele University
Dr Lawrence D Phillips Emeritus professor of decision sciences, London School of Economics
Thangham Debbonaire MP for Bristol West (Lab)
Prof Barry Everitt Professor of behavioural neuroscience, University of Cambridge
Ann Fordham Executive director, International Drug Policy Consortium
Prof Graeme Henderson Professor of pharmacology, University of Bristol & member of the ACMD
Caroline Lucas MP Vice-chair, all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform
Prof Michael Lynsky Professor of addictions, King’s College London
Prof Jo Neill Professor of psychopharmacology, University of Manchester
James Nicholls CEO, Transform Drug Policy Foundation
Prof David Nutt Professor of neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London
Dr John Ramsey Emeritus director, Tictac
Anna Rickman Drug Science
Dr Anne Schlag King’s College London
Tommy Sheppard MP for Edinburgh East (SNP)
Jeff Smith MP for Manchester Withington (Lab) & Co-chair, all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform
Oli Stevens Imperial College London
Dr Polly Taylor Consultant in veterinary anaesthesia
Alison Thewliss MP for Glasgow Central (SNP)
Prof Allan Young President, British Association for Psychopharmacology
Prof Adam Winstock Consultant psychiatrist & addiction medicine specialist
Prof Colin Blakemore Professor of neuroscience, School of Advanced Study
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