Entirely co-incidentally, I happened to mentioned this issue during our class on regulation yesterday.

As I said, the argument has always been that in terms of risk of death, taking this illegal drug is far safer than riding a horse.

Whether anyone should in fact take illegal drugs is another issue. As is the connection between street crime and organised crime and illegal drugs.

It is also entirely predictable, given the traditionally dire level of the debate on illegal drugs, that our poor professor has got into trouble for pointing out something which is a. true and b. he is paid to have a sensible opinion on.

Professor Nutt (unfortunate name) really is the government’s top scientific adviser on the subject and runs the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs -  the ACMD.

For me, this is a great news story. Next week, as Sky points out, the ACMD is expected to recommend ecstasy be downgraded from a class A to a class B drug. Wonderful stuff.