http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11923644
Campaigners have criticised government plans to remove the legal requirement for scientists to be on the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs.
The proposal follows the sacking of top adviser Professor David Nutt last year, and seven other advisers' resignations amid complaints that politics rather than evidence was driving drug policy.
Darryl Bickler, of the Drug Equality Alliance, which campaigns for rational rather than subjective drug laws, accused the government of "reaping vengeance by sweeping away potential heretics that might seek to use evidence rather than tabloid hysteria to fulfil the need to be seen to be doing something".
The committee "could become filled with 'yes men'", warned Oxford professor of neurobiology Colin Blakemore, former chief executive of the Medical Research Council.
Prof Blakemore told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "You can see why evidence and advice might be inconvenient to a minister who is confident in his or her own judgment."
Goodness knows, as long as someone is sure of themselves In Their Own Heart, they needn't bother consulting with actual Knowledge before making a decision.
Just think of where the United States would be now if we hadn't invaded Iraq.
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