[420 Girl]

The politicians want marijuana viewed as an extremely dangerous drug, while the scientists say tobacco and alcohol pose more of a threat to the British public.

The divergence of views has cost the government's top drug adviser his job and sparked a revolt among his colleagues, who accuse Prime Minister Gordon Brown of ignoring scientific advice to score political points.

"There's incredible frustration that it should even come to this," said Tracey Brown, the managing director of Sense About Science, a nonprofit group which has published an open letter demanding that the government guarantee scientists' right to free expression.

The government first raised hackles with scientists when it toughened its policy on marijuana in 2008, upgrading it to "Class B" status, just below the most risky drugs.

That reversed a decision four years earlier to classify pot as "Class C" - among tranquilizers and painkillers, whose non-prescription use it treated the most leniently.

Officials argued that more potent varieties of cannabis - such as skunk - could cause serious mental health problems. In comments at the time, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown even went so far as to describe the drug as being lethal.

When the chairman of Brown's advisory council, David Nutt, criticized officials for distorting the evidence, he was fired.

The move horrified Nutt's colleagues. Five more scientists resigned in solidarity, and some of the country's top thinkers - including former chief government scientists and the head of Britain's academy of sciences - have put their names to the Sense About Science letter.

One of the more than 60 signatories, Alan Boobis, who advises the government on food safety issues, said scientists were particularly disturbed by what they saw as officials' attempt to spin the facts about drug use.

"The science should not be misrepresented, no matter which way the policy goes," he told the AP shortly before the letter was published.

Brown's Downing Street office has refused to say whether it had written back to the scientists or whether it was prepared to accept their terms.

While not quite as liberal as in Holland, where cannabis is sold openly in cafes, Britain's policy had been largely in line with those of European countries such as Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland, where possession of small amounts of marijuana is rarely ever prosecuted.

While the firing has incensed many scientists, analysts say taking a tough line on drugs is popular with voters.

"I think the government won't be finding itself on the wrong side of public opinion on the issue," said Steven Fielding, the director of Center for British Politics at Nottingham University in central England.

Nutt, meanwhile, has said the government's advisory council on drugs is "severely compromised." In a speech to a packed audience of journalists and crime experts in London on Wednesday, he promised to set up his own, rival drug advice body.

Fielding said that while the continuing controversy over drug policy was embarrassing for the government, the alternative of relaxing restrictions on marijuana would be unpopular.

James Treadwell, a criminologist at the University of Leicester in central England who opposed the tightened restrictions on marijuana, said there was not yet any statistical evidence to show what the effect of the move had been.

But he predicted more people being arrested, more cases coming to court, and "a whole raft of problems that don't necessarily make society better."

But he said that, as far as drugs were concerned, "the default position for any politician is to go for the hard line rather than the sensible line."

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