Professor David Nutt - the government adviser who was sacked a couple of years back - is in Bristol on Friday evening. He's a thought-provoking speaker. 6.30pm for tea / coffee, 7.00 for talks then discussion, on Friday 13th at Cotham School Dance Studio, Cotham Lawn Road, BS6 6DT. Should be de-criminalise drugs? How would it work in practice? Come and have your say.
Controversial scientist, Professor David Nutt, is addressing a meeting in Bristol next Friday about the laws on drugs. Professor Nutt hit the headlines when he was sacked from a committee advising the government about drug classification. But he hasn’t gone away. He set up the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs so he can continue examining scientific research on drugs, without the constraints of a statutory body. Professor Nutt argues for a drugs policy based on how much harm each drug does, both to the individual and society.

The public meeting, which takes place at 7.00pm on Friday 13 May at Cotham School, will also hear from Danny Kushlick. Danny is the founder of the Transform Drugs Policy Foundation, a Bristol-based policy think tank which campaigns for an effective system to regulate and control drugs at national and international levels.

For many people, this sounds like weakening our drugs laws; giving up on the ‘war on drugs’. But how successful is our current law at deterring people from misusing drugs and minimising the harm caused if they do? For all the money spent on police and prisons, drugs are still a serious problem. Bristol currently has an estimated 8,000 problematic drug users. That’s a lot of wasted lives, suffering families and victims of crime. Danny Kushlick has studied the approaches of other countries and thinks that we may be able to learn from some of them.