The article doesn't give enough information to tell what's going on or even to Google for the context.

It's a big story currently in the UK so this article doesn't try to cover it all just one minor element. Namely, that politicians have been claiming that even if they take advice from scientists, then the politicians are still the experts in how people will react to changes in legislation. Which is clearly false.

The basics details of the actual story are here:

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Political_fallout_from_the_sacki...

and here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Nutt#Government_positions

... and not really related to HN IMHO.