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Alcohol and other drugs have always been with us, and now that we understand them better than ever, this is the time to approach concerns about their harms in a scientific and rational way, and to evaluate our approaches including prohibition.

The regulation of drugs – including alcohol and tobacco – is an issue of pressing importance due to the increasing health care costs associated with their use and the new sorts of synthetic agents being developed and sold over the internet.

My talk will reflect on these issues in the light of my ten years experience on the governments Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs from which I was sacked about a year ago. I shall present new analyses that compare the harms of drugs and alcohol using more sophisticated methodology and challenge many of the current misconceptions about drugs – their harms – and how to deal with them.

Archive ItemsDavid Nutt is a psychiatrist and neuropsychopharmacologist specialising in the research of drugs which affect the brain and conditions such as addiction, anxiety and sleep. He was until 2009 a professor at the University of Bristol heading their Psychopharmacology Unit. but since then he is the Edmond J Safra chair in Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College, London. 

Professor Nutt is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Academy of Medical Sciences, he also holds visiting professorships in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. He is a past president of the British Association of Psychopharmacology and is currently president of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology.