Drug laws and licensing
Back to MembersList of members
The current list of members with information on their professional backgrounds.
Professor Sir Michael Rawlins - Chairman
Re-appointed from 1 November 2005 – 31 October 2008
Chairman of the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) since its formation in 1999. He has also been Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs since 1998.
He is an Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was the Ruth and Lionel Jacobson Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne from 1973 to 2006. At the same time he held the position of consultant physician and consultant clinical pharmacologist to the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust. He was a member (1980-1986), Vice-Chairman (1987-1992) and Chairman (1993-1998) of the Committee on Safety of Medicines.
Dr Dima Abdulrahim
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Research Briefings Manager - National Treatment Agency
Lord Victor Adebowale
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Chief Executive of Turning Point. Victor joined Turning Point as Chief Executive in 2001. Turning Point is the UK’s leading social care organisation working with people facing a range of complex needs including substance misuse, mental health problems and learning disabilities. Victor began his career in Local Authority Estate Management before joining the housing association movement. He was Director of the Alcohol Recovery Project and Chief Executive of youth homelessness charity Centrepoint. In 2000, Victor was awarded the CBE for services to the New Deal, the unemployed and homeless young people and in 2001 was appointed a People’s Peer.
Mr Martin Barnes
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Chief Executive of Drugscope. DrugScope is the UK's leading independent centre of expertise on drugs and drugs policy. He was previously Director of the Child Poverty Action Group which works for the abolition of poverty among children in the UK. He is a trustee of the Family Welfare Association and a member of the advisory board for Transact, the national forum for financial inclusion.
Dr Margaret Birtwistle
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Specialist GP, Senior Tutor - Education and Training Unit, St George's Hospital & Forensic Medicine Examiner
Simon Bray
Newly Appointed 1 January 2008- 31 December 2010
Simon is a Commander in the Metropolitan Police and currently oversees the policing of 10 south London boroughs. His career has included a variety of uniform, detective and specialist roles, with secondments to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Cabinet Office. He has been a member of the drugs committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) since 2005 and leads for ACPO on drugs precursors, drugs in sport and methamphetamine.
Eric Carlin
Newly Appointed 1 January 2008- 31 December 2010
Eric is currently Chief Executive of Mentor UK, the charity which focuses on developing effective drug misuse prevention activities. Previously Eric was the Chief Executive of Angel Drug Services. Eric’s Governmental and Inter-Governmental work includes current activities leading for the UN’s Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs on developing civic society’s engagement with the United Nations. He has been elected Vice Chair of this Committee. Eric has twice been elected as Chair of the English Drug Education Forum and he currently holds that position.
Ms Carmel Clancy
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Principal Lecturer in Mental Health and Addictions, Middlesex University.
Professor Ilana Crome
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Professor of Addiction Psychiatry, Keele University Medical School, Harplands Hospital.
Ms Robyn Doran
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Registered Mental Health Nurse & Service Director, Substance Misuse CNWL Mental Health Trust.
Dr Clare Gerada
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010.
General Practitioner (London Practice) and Primary Care Lead for Drug Misuse & Chair at the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Mr Patrick Hargreaves
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 - 31 December 2010
OfSTED inspector and the Drugs and Alcohol Adviser with County Durham Children & Young Peoples’ Services. He is responsible for the delivery of drug & alcohol education to children and young people and for the quality of drug policies across County Durham's schools and colleges. He reviews education materials for Drugscope/Alcohol Concern has addressed Drugscope/Alcohol Concern and DfES conferences. Prior to his present post Patrick worked in residential child care; youth work; mainstream education; an autistic school; set up and managed a Pupil Referral Unit; and as an advisory teacher.
Ms Caroline Healy
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Caroline Healy works in the Department of Health, implementing the commissioning strategy for the mental health of young people in secure settings. She has recently been working with Local Authorities in the East Midlands in their implementation of Every Child Matters. She has many years of multi agency, children’s services’ experience, her main area of expertise is within the health field, having spent many years as an NHS professional and manager.
Caroline was the Director for England at ChildLine, the UK wide voluntary organisation working directly with children, she also spent 5 years as the Health Adviser to the Sure Start Unit in DfES. In this role, she provided advice on children’s health issues, on NHS structures and on the roles of health professionals, to inform the development of Sure Start Unit policy, such as children’s centres, local programmes and extended schools. She also worked with local authorities in facilitating their multi agency strategy in the development of these children’s services, bringing together local authority and health partners to reduce professional barriers and promote joint working, in order to improve the outcomes for children and families, particularly those living in areas of deprivation.
Caroline is a member of the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs and is Chair of the ACMD Pathways to Problems Working Group; she is a JP in the London Borough of Haringey, where she is a magistrate on the Family Proceedings Panel.
Matthew Hickman
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Reader in Public Health and Epidemiology, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol
Professor Leslie Iversen
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Professor of Pharmacology, University of Oxford. A neuropharmacologist who has worked in academia and in industry. His research focuses on the actions of drugs on the brain. Les acted as Specialist Advisor to the House of Lords "Cannabis" enquiry (1998) and a member of the Royal College of Physicians enquiry into medical uses of cannabis (2006). The author of two books on psychoactive drugs: "The Science of Marijuana, OUP, 2000, and "Speed, Ecstasy and Ritalin: the Science of Amphetamines", OUP, 2006.
Dr Les King
Newly Appointed 3 April 2008 - 31 December 2010
Les King is a part-time advisor to the Department of Health (Focal Point on Drugs – UK correspondent on ‘new psychoactive substances’) and to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. He wrote a book on the Misuse of Drugs Act in 2003 and a forthcoming book – ‘Forensic Chemistry of Substance Misuse’ - to be published by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2009. He was previously Head of the Drugs Intelligence Unit in the Forensic Science Service.
Professor Michael Lewis
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008- 31 December 2010
Professor of Oral Medicine and Head of Oral Surgery, Medicine & Pathology at the Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff University. Michael has published over 200 scientific articles and co-authored six medical textbooks. In addition, he has delivered more than 400 postgraduate lectures worldwide. In 2006, Professor Lewis was elected as Dean Elect of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. In relation to the Advisory Council for Misuse of Drugs, he is in a informed position to be able to advise on the dental and orofacial aspects of drug use and abuse.
David Liddell
Newly Appointed 1 January 2008-31 December 2010
Director of the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF). He has played an active role within the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse since its inception in 1995 and has been a Secretary to the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Drug and Alcohol Misuse Group since 1999. He served on the Ministerial Drug Task Force in Scotland 1994 and was a key player in the development of harm reduction services in Scotland, advocating the introduction of needle exchanges and substitute prescribing programmes.
David represents Scottish Drug Forum on the Hepatitis C Action Plan Co-ordinating Group in Scotland and has championed the role of User Involvement and human rights/advocacy services for users. He has made a significant contribution to promote access to, and investment in, employability and other routes out of problematic drug use.
Dr John Marsden
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Research Psychologist, Institute of Psychiatry.
Mr Peter Martin
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Independent Consultant in Substance Misuse. Peter has over 30 years experience of drug treatment and rehabilitation. He was CEO of Addaction, the national drug charity, for 15 years before he became an independent consultant in substance misuse in 2006. He studied drugs and HIV/Aids on a Churchill Fellowship and was a member of The Parole Board for England and Wales 1994 -2000. He is qualified in social work and in youth and community development work.
Professor David Nutt
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Psychiatrist and pharmacologist University of Bristol. Currently Professor of Psychopharmacology and Head of Dept of Community Based Medicine. Bristol University and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist Avon and Wiltshire Partnership NHS Trust. Chair of the Technical Committee ACMD.
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Executive Director. Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
District Judge Justin Philips
Newly Appointed 1 January 2008- 31 December 2010
Judge Philips was appointed to the Bench in 1989 after 19 years as a criminal barrister. He became a District Judge in 2000. From 1994 he also sat in the Crown Court resigning as a Recorder in 2006 to devote his time to the West London Dedicated Drugs Court of which he is lead Judge. Judge Philips is a Patron of Drugfam.
Richard Phillips
Newly Appointed 1st January 2008- 31 December 2010
Ian Ragan
Newly Appointed 6 February 2008-31 December 2010
Dr C. Ian Ragan is the Director of CIR Consultancy Ltd providing consultancy services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He was previously Executive Director, Neuroscience Research, Europe, for Eli Lilly and more recently their Consultant for European Scientific Affairs. In the latter role he was Lilly’s representative on the Research Directors Group of EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations) and a member and ex-Chair of the R&D Committee of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Currently he is the Innovative Medicines Initiative Advisor to EFPIA and chairs their IMI Governance Task Force. He is the Executive Director of the European Brain Council, Chairman of Psynova Neurotech Ltd, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Capsant Neurotechnologies, a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Evotec AG and BioSim, and a trustee of Autism Speaks.
Mr Howard Roberts
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008- 31 December 2010
Deputy Chief Constable, Nottinghamshire Police . After graduating with a degree in Law LLB (Hons), he began a policing career with North Wales Police and had a strong interest in tackling drug issues. In 2001 he was selected as an Assistant Chief Constable in Nottinghamshire. He has worked extensively combating the supply of class A drugs in Nottinghamshire and played a strong part in developing, with other agencies, the innovative Sherwood Project which won the National Criminal Justice Award, in 2005, for the outstanding management of offenders. Selected as Deputy Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police in June 2003, he has been an active member of the ACPO Drugs Committee and has held the portfolio for Drug Treatment and Education. He became the Committee’s Vice-Chair in 2005.
Dr Mary Rowlands
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Consultant Psychiatrist. Currently a Consultant Addiction Psychiatrist providing secondary care drug and alcohol treatment services in Devon Partnership NHS Trust, developing an interest in teaching as an Honorary Lecturer since 2004 at the Peninsula Medical School, University of Exeter. Mary developed and provided a Young Persons service and Criminal Justice Service (Arrest Referral, and Drug Treatment and Testing Orders) in Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust, 1996-2004. Previously she was Head of Healthcare Services for Prisoners in HMP Bristol where she was also involved in the National Prison Drugs Strategy within the Prison Department and developed pilot drug programmes for opiate detoxification and 3 months rehabilitation.
Dr Polly Taylor
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Freelance Consultant in Veterinary Anaesthesia. A veterinary surgeon who graduated in 1976. After a few years in general practice she specialised in anaesthesia, becoming Reader in Anaesthesia in the Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge. In 2002 she became an independent consultant in Veterinary Anaesthesia, dividing her time between clinical anaesthesia, teaching for Continued Professional Development, anaesthesia for research and drug registration.
Ms Monique Tomlinson
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Freelance consultant in substance misuse
Marion Walker FRPharmS
Newly Appointed 1 January 2008- 31 December 2010
Clinical Director - substance misuse service - Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Team Pharmacist - National Treatment Agency. Marion is also Secretary of PharMAG (Pharmacy Misuse Advisory Group); a Tutor for the Royal College of General Practitioners Part 2 certificate in drug misuse; a member of the RCGP substance misuse executive committee and a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain / NTA substance misuse group.
Mr Arthur Wing
Re-appointed from 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010
Assistant Chief Officer, Sussex Probation Area
