Eight new members appointed to the ACMD
The Home Secretary has today appointed new members to the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).
Experts in topics including healthcare, social science, enforcement, toxicology, and pharmacology have been recruited to help deliver the ACMD’s ongoing work.
The ACMD is an independent body which makes recommendations to government on the control of dangerous or otherwise harmful drugs, including classification and scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and its regulations.
The new appointees being announced today are:
- Dr Richard Stevenson, a consultant in emergency medicine at Glasgow Royal Infirmary
- Harry Shapiro, director of DrugWise
- Dr Ann Sullivan, consultant physician in HIV and Sexual Health, and Trustee and executive (Hon secretary) of the British HIV Association
- Rosalie Weetman, senior commissioning manager of substance misuse at Derbyshire County Council
- Dr Derek Tracy, consultant psychiatrist and clinical director at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, and visiting senior lecturer at King’s College, London
- Prof Simon Thomas, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Newcastle University, consultant physician at Newcastle Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and national lead for the National Poisons Information Service and TOXBASE database
- Dr Hilary Hamnett, a senior toxicologist at Imperial College London and one of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 175 Faces of Chemistry
- Lawrence Gibbons, current Head of Drugs Threat at the National Crime Agency
The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, said:
I welcome the appointment of new members and look forward to continuing to work closely with the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs. The ACMD provides the highest quality advice to the government and the addition of new members will further strengthen its expertise.
The Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, said:
I am delighted to welcome the new members to the ACMD. They will add to the range and depth of expertise on Council and I very much look forward to working with each of them.
The 3-year appointments attract no remuneration and have been made in accordance with the code of practice of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA). The newly appointed members take up their posts today.