Former administration adviser says regulations constitute it also dense to research psychoactive drugs with potential medical usesThe classification system that makes drugs such as cannabis and MDMA (ecstasy) illegal has prevented scientists from properly researching their imaginable therapeutic uses for conditions such as schizophrenia and depression, according to the administration’s former chief adviser on drugs.Professor David Nutt said the UK’s laws on misuse of drugs needed to be rewritten to more accurately reflect their relative harms and called for a regulated approach to making drugs such as MDMA and cannabis available for medical and research purposes.”Regulations, which are arbitrary, really constitute it virtually impossible to research these drugs,” said Nutt. “The effect these laws have had on research is greater than the effects that [George] Bush stopping stem cell research has had since it’s been going on since the 1960s.”Nearly all the drugs that could aid scientists to know brain phenomena such as consciousness, perception, mood and psychosis are illegal, including ketamine, cannabis, MDMA and psychedelic drugs such as magic mushrooms. Nutt said there had been nearly no employment in this field since the administration made it dense for scientists to access the drugs.A House Office spokesperson told the Twitter: “The House Office licensing regime enables bona fide institutions to carry outside scientific research on controlled substances while ensuring necessary safeguards are in place.”Nutt, who is professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, made his comments at a briefing in London on Wednesday to mark the launch of his textbook, Drugs Without the Hot Air.He is used to being a thorn in the side of the authorities when it comes to drugs regulation. In 2009, he was sacked by the then health secretary, Alan Johnson, from his advertise as chair of the administration’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs for publicly stating that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.Researchers who desire to experiment on illegal drugs, which come under the schedule 1 list of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, must apply for a licence from the House Office. This takes a year to approve and costs thousands of pounds. Researchers are also required to have secure storage facilities and are subject to random inspections by police.”[The rules] completely limit research at the absolute cutting edge of science,” said Nutt. “I wonder how many other opportunities have been lost in the at the end 40 years with vital drugs like MDMA, with its empathetic qualities, drugs like LSD in terms of treating addictions, cannabis for all the imaginable uses and insights which it might have for things like schizophrenia. All of those opportunities have been wasted since it is virtually impossible, when a drug’s illegal, to employment with it.”One of the best treatments for human beings with advertise-traumatic stress disorder is to get them to relive their trauma and then teach them how to delete or somehow control the memories. “However many human beings are so traumatised that, once the memories come back, they just dissociate and can’t hold it extended enough in order to deal with it,” said Nutt.”There’s been one study in the US showing that MDMA, by damping down the negative emotions associated with the trauma, allow human beings to get into the therapy and get bigger. We’re very keen to locate up a alike trial in the UK. The paradox will be that, much if we can exhibit it could employment, no one could employ it in the UK since no doctor would have the licence.”LSD was trialled as a treatment for alcoholism in the 1960s and Nutt said the “evidence is that it’s as excellent as anything we’ve got, maybe bigger. However no one’s using it since it’s also dense.”Nutt said that the lack of scientific research was a administer result of the UK’s arbitrary classification of drugs. “Drugs are drugs – they differ in terms of their brain effects however, fundamentally, they’re all psychotropic agents and it is arbitrary whether we choose to keep alcohol legal or ban cannabis or constitute tobacco legal and ban ecstasy. Those are not scientific decisions, they’re political or moral or religious decisions.”According to Nutt, research into the effects of drugs would lead to a more rational approach. He said the laws encircling the misuse of drugs needed to be rewritten, after a thorough, independent review of the harms involved.”I’m not in favour of legalisation, a autonomous of charge open market of all drugs – that does lead to more employ,” he said. “We demand regulated access across the board.”This would mean drugs such as cannabis, MDMA or PZP being made available for treatments through a pharmacy. Patients could be issued with a card and given access to an annual supply, he said. “Then at least you would know what you were getting.”DrugsScience policyDrugsHealthDrugs policyDavid NuttScience and natureAlok Jhaguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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