Former Prime Minister Lady Thatcher saved "thousands of lives" by accepting scientific advice which went against her political instincts, a senior scientist said yesterday.
Amid all the commentary on the death of former Prime Minister Lady Thatcher, her contribution to public health has passed almost unnoticed.
But according to one senior scientist, she was responsible for "brave and important" decisions at the start of the AIDS epidemic.
Professor David Nutt pointed out the former Prime Minister was trained as a scientist and, in spite of her public image, proved very good at taking scientific advice.
Mrs Thatcher’s government notoriously approved "iceberg" adverts warning the public of the arrival of AIDs.
But speaking at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience, its president Professor David Nutt said one of the critical decisions she made was to agree to setting up a needle exchange programme for drug users in 1986.
She had acted on the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Professor Nutt said this had saved "thousands of lives" and halted the spread of the virus across the UK.
Professor Nutt, who fell out with the last Labour government over drugs policy, said: "Despite her initial reluctance because of the predictable public outcry that this would be seen to be encouraging drug use and condoning crime, as a scientist she understood the importance of evidence-based decision-making and she accepted the ACMD’s advice.
"This is one of her greatest legacies to our country."
He added: "It would be fantastic if politicians nowadays would follow her lead and be brave enough to back drug research and to make decisions based on the evidence, rather than making knee-jerk decisions in response to the ephemeral political pressures of the day.
"At present, lives are being lost every day through the misuse of legal and illegal drugs and drug research is being hampered by the current arcane drugs classification system."
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