Is this the right GP for the drugs advisory council? | Evan Harris | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

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There is only one GP on the Home Office's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). Until last month Dr Margaret Birtwistle served on the ACMD. She is a GP consultant to Surrey Drug Action Team and a forensic medicine examiner. Last week, the Home Office appointed Dr Hans-Christian Raabe, a Manchester GP who does not appear, as far as I can see, to have published any relevant peer-reviewed research. So it appeared that the Home Office was not able to recruit attract any specialist GPs and thus appointed an inner-city GP. But Raabe is not just a GP. He is a leading member of the Maranatha Community, a Manchester-based evangelical Christian group. He is also the joint "medical co-ordinator" of the Council for Health and Wholeness (CHW), a group based in the office of the Maranatha Community. Both the Maranatha Community and the CHW have strong views on drugs and homosexuality and regularly send briefing materials to MPs and policymakers. Raabe has co-authored an article that claims: "While the majority of homosexuals are not involved in paedophilia, it is of grave concern that there is a disproportionately greater number of homosexuals among paedophiles and an overlap between the gay movement and the movement to make paedophilia acceptable." He becomes the only member of the ACMD to declare a political interest, in that he has been a candidate for the Christian party in the European elections. Reporter Mark Easton in his BBC blog cites examples of his extreme hostility to harm reduction, which is a fundamental part of the way this country's healthcare and education professionals seek to safeguard the welfare of young people and drug users. These are not mainstream scientific views. I would say that the problem with Raabe, in respect of his appointment, is not that he appears to be homophobic, or that his views are offensive. After all, neither homophobia nor offensive views can be a bar to serving on expert advisory committees or to participation in public debates. Nor is it a problem that he is deeply religious. There are plenty of religious people in advisory groups and engaging in policy discussions, some of them making valuable contributions. The problem is that the ACMD is an expert committee where even those members with strong policy views have them framed in the context of their experience in the field, or their scholarship, and not merely their opinions and beliefs. His appointment has, unsurprisingly, attracted widespread criticism. It is also not a surprise that in return religious commentators such as Melanie Phillips have weighed in – in her usual understated way. ("Penalising religious people for speaking and acting in accordance with their beliefs is neither liberal nor tolerant. It is behaviour more commonly associated with totalitarian dictatorships.") Nor is it a surprise that Christian Concern has joined her in the latest example of the kind of false-victimhood that one liberal Christian group has called "shameful" – claiming that religious views are being excluded from public life. Raabe himself has said that society is in danger of believing that "if you are a Christian you are not fit for public office or you are biased or a bigot". The CHW accused the ACMD of being overpopulated by pro-liberalisation experts in a 2006 submission to the science and technology committee during its inquiry into drug classification. This raises the possibility that Raabe has applied to join the ACMD with a conscious agenda of changing the policy stance of the council. Did the Home Office consider this when they appointed him? Andy Lewis of the Quackometer blog identifies a number of government expert committees now being populated by non-experts. I agree with him when he says: "When David Nutt was sacked for expressing views on relative harm, we were angry that government was ignoring the advice of its advisors. Now we find ourselves hoping they do."

*shrugs* Pretty much all of these stupid consultation exercises are staffed with a view to coming up with the "right" answer. Sure, usually it's done a tad more subtly than this, but whatever.

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Government drug adviser sacked for anti-gay views | World news | guardian.co.uk

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A GP with strong Christian beliefs has been sacked as a government drug adviser just weeks into the job, after it emerged that he had written a study linking homosexuality to paedophilia. Hans-Christian Raabe, who backs total abstinence from drugs, said his dismissal came as a result of views "completely unrelated to drug policy". The family doctor had been appointed to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) less than a month ago and said he had yet to attend a meeting. Given that he had publicly espoused contentious views on drugs, his appointment was greeted with a chorus of criticism. Much of it focused on comments he had made about homosexuality, including an assertion that "the homosexual lifestyle is associated with a large number of very serious physical and emotional health consequences". Yet his departure was said to have been because he had not been open enough about his views. Home Office officials said he had not disclosed his role as co-author of a controversial study suggesting a link between homosexuality and paedophilia, which would have "caused embarrassment to the department". The dismissal comes after other members of the ACMD, which advises the government on its drugs policy, had threatened to resign over Raabe's appointment. In 2009 the family doctor stood as MEP candidate in the North West region for the Christian party/Christian People's Alliance party, and is a leading light in the Manchester-based Maranatha community, which is dedicated to "re-establishing Christian values in society". The community is known for its very strong anti-gay views and has briefed MPs against measures for homosexual rights. Professor David Nutt, who resigned from the ACMD over the government's decision to reclassify cannabis from a class C to a class B drug in 2009, openly criticised Raabe's appointment last month, saying it was "deeply worrying" that he could support total abstinence from drugs when there was "a vast body of evidence in favour of harm reduction". Raabe's views on drugs run against much of what the ACMD had previously promoted. He had co-authored a pamphlet, entitled A Warning Cry to the People of Great Britain, which warned that drug problems were part of a "morally self-destructive society". He wrote that health officials should consider drug-prevention schemes that involve spirituality: "From a Christian standpoint, we are concerned that the issue of drug misuse is frequently focused only on the physical and perhaps also the emotional aspects of drug misuse, ignoring the spiritual dimension." It was his views on sexuality, however, that proved his undoing. Raabe was one of seven authors of a report called Gay Marriage and Homosexuality, which warned: "Any attempts to legalise gay marriage should be aware of the link between homosexuality and paedophilia. "While the majority of homosexuals are not involved in paedophilia, it is of grave concern that there is a disproportionately greater number of homosexuals among paedophiles and an overlap between the gay movement and the movement to make paedophilia acceptable." Bridget Phillipson, a Labour member of the Commons home affairs select committee, said it was an "absolute outrage" that the government had appointed "someone with such horrific opinions to this senior role". Raabe claimed to have fallen foul of "political correctness". He told the Daily Mail today: "I have been discriminated against because of my opinions and beliefs, which are in keeping with the teaching of the major churches. "My appointment has been revoked based on the wrong perception that I could potentially discriminate against gay people – something I have never done, neither in my private nor professional life." A Home Office spokesperson said: "Dr Raabe's appointment to the ACMD has been revoked and we will be starting a recruitment campaign for a replacement GP shortly. The ACMD's work will continue."

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My appointment has been revoked based on the wrong perception that I could potentially discriminate against gay people – something I have never done, neither in my private nor professional life.

"Raabe was one of seven authors of a report called Gay Marriage and Homosexuality, which warned: "Any attempts to legalise gay marriage should be aware of the link between homosexuality and paedophilia.

"While the majority of homosexuals are not involved in paedophilia, it is of grave concern that there is a disproportionately greater number of homosexuals among paedophiles and an overlap between the gay movement and the movement to make paedophilia acceptable."

I'd say that the extract above qualifies as discrimination... But, even if you'd disagree with that statement, the idea that, holding such views, you wouldn't or haven't discriminated against gays is laugheable...

As to this drug committee, since they fired Dr. Nutts, we all know they're nothing but a rubber stamp approval committee for whatever policy the gvt wants to enact, sciences be damned...

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