Former Oxford pharmacologist, Professor Les Iversen, has been appointed Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to the government.
The post has been empty since David Nutts, the previous Senior Drugs Advisor, was controversially sacked by Home Secretary Alan Johnson over his criticism of tougher cannabis laws.
Further controversy has arisen over the content of a 2003 lecture Iversen gave called for the legalisation of cannabis.
However, his position on the effects of cannabis appears to have changed over the last few years.
In an interview last week with BBC Radio 5, Iversen stated “we now have to confront the more potent forms of cannabis, we have new evidence that arose since 2003, linking cannabis to psychiatric illness.”
He commented, “I think it is quite free for a scientist to change his mind when faced with new facts.”
