3 more drugs advisory panel members quit

LONDON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Three more members of the 28-member British government's official drug abuse advisory panel say they have resigned in a political struggle.

The resignations were the latest in a series of defections from the volunteer group of experts who advise Whitehall on drug abuse policy. The departures were triggered by the firing of the panel's head, David Nutt, by Home Secretary Alan Johnson last month.

The latest three panel members to resign join two others who quit last weekend, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

One of the latest to quit, Dr. Simon Campbell, a former president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, told the BBC that Nutt's firing smacked of political expediency after he had publicly disagreed with a government decision to up the criminal classifications of marijuana and Ecstasy.

Campbell said he tendered his resignation because he didn't agree with the abrupt manner of Nutt's firing. He said that while the government may listen to the scientific advice offered by such advisory panels, "at the end of the day I think political expediency rules the roost," The Times reported.