Iversen is a retired professor of pharmacology from Oxford University who specialized in neuropharmacology, (drugs effects on [...]]]> Professor Les Iversen is now the government’s Interim Chairman for the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs which means that he will now join the ongoing argument raging between scientific advice and political opinions with regard to marijuana.

Iversen is a retired professor of pharmacology from Oxford University who specialized in neuropharmacology, (drugs effects on the brain).

Throughout his career he has been a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the Royal Society, and published over 350 scientific papers.  Currently he also sits on a board of directors for a company that manufactures drugs for people with nervous system disorders.

He has worked with the government extensively throughout his life and will take over the role of ACMD chairman after an earlier stint in which he was the head of the technical committee for the body.

Additionally, in 1998 he was the key specialist adviser in a report on cannabis that was presented by the science and technology committee of the House of Lords.  The study found that the government should allow the use of medical cannabis and that the law should not prevent those in serious pain from using it.

However, it also found that the law banning recreational use of the drug should stay in place because there is significant evidence that healthy people can be harmed from prolonged use of the now relatively powerful drug, that does not resemble the good old fashioned dope your grandparents smoked while watching Pink Floyd.

His main objection is that modern dope is generically engineered to be far stronger than natural varieties that were used recreationally up until relatively recently