Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker has resigned as a home office minister, saying working in the department was like "walking through mud".
Mr Baker told the Independent that Home Secretary Theresa May saw the Lib Dems as a "cuckoo in the nest" and criticised the department in a letter to party leader Nick Clegg.
The MP for Lewes was appointed to the Home Office in October 2013.
Mr Clegg described him as a "brilliant minister".
Mr Baker and Mrs May have clashed over drugs policy, with the Lib Dem recently calling for sweeping changes to the UK's approach following the publication of a Home Office report which he accused the Conservatives of blocking.
End Quote Norman BakerThe goodwill to work collegiately to take forward rational evidence-based policy has been in somewhat short supply"
He said the government should ditch what he called the "inappropriate rhetoric of the 1950s" and focus more on treatment.
The report concluded there was no obvious link between tough laws and levels of illegal drug use.
Mr Baker said the report should end the "mindless rhetoric" on drugs policy, but Prime Minister David Cameron said the research did not offer "specific conclusions" and he did not believe in decriminalising drugs.
The Home Office said improvements in the health of drug users in other countries could not be attributed to decriminalisation alone.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said Mr Baker had been considering resigning for some time but had been persuaded to stay in post by Mr Clegg.
'Great skill'In his resignation letter to his party leader, Mr Baker said being the only Lib Dem in the Home Office had been "particularly challenging".
He said: "Despite these challenges, I am pleased with what I have been able to achieve, not least to have been the first minister with responsibility for drugs to have put prejudice aside and published an evidence-based approach to this important issue, despite repeated Conservative efforts to block release."
Unlike in the Department for Transport, where he had previously been a minister, Mr Baker said that in the Home Office "the goodwill to work collegiately to take forward rational evidence-based policy has been in somewhat short supply".
By Ross Hawkins, political correspondent, BBC NewsThe only hippy at an Iron Maiden concert. That newspaper description of Norman Baker as a Lib Dem minister in the Home Office was among his kinder write-ups.
He was dubbed a conspiracy theorist on his appointment; he wrote a book suggesting the weapons scientist Dr David Kelly was murdered.
He is leaving in part, he says, to spend more time with his music. One of his band's videos shows him serenading slightly bemused tourists in Piccadilly Circus.
Critics will mock. But his clash with Theresa May over drugs policy highlighted the Lib Dem view better than any agreed line to take.
His resignation gives him both a chance to remind voters how badly he fell out with the Tories, and time to go knocking on their doors before a tough election.
It's tricky for his party, who have to find a stop-gap minister to replace him until the election. It could be trickier still if other Lib Dem ministers were tempted to follow his logic.
The keen musician, whose band The Reform Club released its first single last year, said being a minister and a constituency MP had "squeezed" the time he had available for his family and his music.
Mr Clegg wrote back: "However complex the issues have been, or challenging the coalition relations have proved to be, you have handled the political relationships within government with great skill, always focusing on how to achieve liberal reform wherever you can."
Lib Dem deputy leader Sir Malcolm Bruce echoed these sentiments and said: "I think he's reached a point of saying 'I have achieved what I can achieve, what I want to do now is to concentrate on my constituents my family and my interests'."
'Record of failure'Labour's shadow home office minister Diana Johnson accused Home Secretary Theresa May of "losing control of her department".
She added: "As for the Lib Dems, this resignation has nothing to do with principle. They will be judged on their actions in government where their record is one of failure having backed the Tories all the way."
As a backbench MP, Mr Baker claimed government scientist David Kelly was murdered in 2003 and said this may have been hushed up by the UK authorities.
But when he was appointed as a crime prevention minister in the Home Office, he described his views on Dr Kelly as "history" and his relations with Mrs May as "friendly".
The Liberal Democrats said his replacement would be announced "in due course".
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