 He described it as "bad legislation", compared its drafting with the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, and described it as incompatible with a conservative philosophy of only banning something when there is clear evidence of harm.The government's own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said the law was unworkable as "the psychoactivity of a substance cannot be unequivocally proven", and that it would potentially impede scientific progress by restricting medical research.Psychopharmacologist and former member of the ACMD, David Nutt, said that the law's apparent ban on poppers (alkyl nitrites) and nitrous oxide was difficult to reconcile with how safe those drugs are in practice, and argued that the (then presumed) ban on poppers was specifically aimed at gay men.