David Nutt: "Fabric's closure is result of this country's backwards drugs policy"

Professor David Nutt, a psychiatrist specialising in the research of drugs, has had his say on the closure of fabric, laying the blame on Britain's policy on drugs.

The day after Islington Borough Council stripped fabric of its licence, following two suspected drug-related deaths at the venue, Nutt wrote for the Guardian to discuss the repercussions this may have and the "stereotyping" clubs and clubbers face, running with the headline "I blame fabric's closure on this country's backward drugs policy".

He wrote: "The first question is one of proportionality. Young people do risky things that often result in harm to themselves and sometimes others, but this doesn’t usually result in the closing of the sites of these accidents. Five young men drowned in the sea at Camber Sands last month but there haven’t been calls to ban swimming at British beaches.

"As I detailed several years ago, horse riding (particularly eventing) is statistically riskier than taking ecstasy, but stables are still open, even though one of the UK’s leading eventers, William Fox-Pitt, suffered a significant head injury and was in a coma for two weeks from a fall last year."

Nutt believes fabric closing will cause more harm than good due to potential unlicensed events lacking in health and safety.

He continues: "Indeed, some such events could even be in part funded by drug suppliers, so the possibility of harm may rise."

Just two months after Secret Garden Party became the first UK festival to introduce drug testing, Nutt also calls for similar harm reduction services to The Netherlands' Drug Information and Monitoring System (DIMS) to be used in the UK.

Read our homage to fabric here.