David Nutt: 'denying access to psychedelics is like denying access to the Covid vaccine'

At the end of our photoshoot, the photographer asks Professor David Nutt — esteemed neuropsychopharmacologist and one-time chief drug adviser to the Government — if he’d record a voice note. “It’s for my brother, he’s a big fan of your work.” Professor Nutt obliges with a smile. Ever since being fired from his role in 2009 for claiming that LSD and ecstasy were less dangerous than alcohol, Professor Nutt has become something of a cult figure among the young and disenfranchised — most recently that cult-like status has been a by-product of his research into psychedelic-assisted mental healthcare.

“I was sacked by the Government for telling the truth about these drugs,” says the 72-year-old. “Of course the world went mad, because no one was allowed to say that. Everyone had been taught to say that LSD was a very dangerous drug and blah, blah, blah — bollocks!” Still, it had to smart a little? “Oh, it did — but oh well. Now I’m sort of used to being out there in the public eye.”