23 January 2012
Last updated at 16:12 ET
Could mind-altering drugs have a medical role?
Former
government drugs adviser Prof David Nutt has said that regulations
should be relaxed to enable researchers to experiment on mind-altering
drugs.
Prof Nutt told BBC News that magic mushrooms, LSD, ecstasy, cannabis and methadone all have potential therapeutic applications.
However, he said they were not being studied because of the restrictions placed on researching illegal drugs.
He said the regulations were "overwhelming".
His comments followed the publication of new research by his
group in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which
suggests that the active ingredient in magic mushrooms could be used to
treat depression.
"I feel quite passionately that these drugs are profound
drugs; they change the brain in a way that no other drugs do. And I find
it bizarre that no-one has studied them before and they haven't because
it's hard and illegal," he said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "The Home Office licensing
regime already enables research to take place through a system of
controlled drug possession licences, allowing bona fide institutions to
carry out scientific research.
"This regime recognises the importance of such research and
enables that to take place in an appropriate environment, ensuring the
necessary safeguards are in place."
Fired
Prof Nutt was sacked by the home secretary from his government
advisory role three years ago for saying that ecstasy and LSD was less
harmful than alcohol.
“Start Quote
Prof David NuttWe need to have a more scientific rational approach to drugs and vilifying drugs like psilocybin whilst at the same time actively promoting much more dangerous drugs like alcohol is totally stupid scientifically”
He says his new research
indicated that there were no "untoward effects" from taking magic
mushrooms and that it should not be illegal to possess them.
Prof Nutt and his team scanned the brains of volunteers who
had been injected with a moderate dose of psilocybin, the active
ingredient of magic mushrooms.
They had expected higher activity in areas of the brain
associated with visual imagery. But in fact they found that the drug
switched off a network of interconnected regions of the brain which
regulated an individual's sense of being and integration with their
environment.
The researchers say that this alters consciousness because
individuals are less in touch with their sensations and normal way of
thinking.
Medical role?
They also found that psilocybin also turns off a part of the
brain which is overactive in some forms of depression. So Prof Nutt
believes that the drug could be used as an antidepressant and has
applied to the Medical Research Council to carry out a small patient
study to see if this is the case.
"There's some research from the US which shows that when used
in a psycho-therapeutic context it can produce quite long-lasting
changes to a person's sense of well-being - changes that can last for
years," he says.
He also said that there was nothing in the brain scans or
follow-up studies which would suggest that if taken in moderate
quantities the drug was unsafe.
"People who use them regularly seem to do that. They seem to
use them on an annual basis in order to enjoy the experience but also
because it has this positive reaffirming effect.
"And there are certainly examples of people who take magic
mushroom tea for obsessive compulsive disorder to keep it under control.
“Start Quote
Martin Barnes DrugScopeA carefully controlled and supervised study, using a pure formulation of psilocybin under controlled conditions, is very different from how most people would ingest the substance in magic mushrooms”
"So it may be that there are
broad utilities of these kind of compounds in terms of mental
well-being. I don't know - I think it's very much a question to be
answered."
A second study, due to be published online by the British
Journal of Psychiatry on Thursday, found that psilocybin enhanced
volunteers' recollections of personal memories, which the researchers
suggest could make it useful as an adjunct to psychotherapy
However, Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope, said:
"The research published today does not directly address whether or not
magic mushrooms are harmful.
"Instead, it looks at how psilocybin, the active chemical in magic mushrooms, affects the brain."
Prof Nutt also said that he believed that possession of magic
mushrooms should not be illegal, adding that its status as a controlled
drug was hampering research.
"Research has been minimal, if not non-existent, on psychedelic drugs because the regulations are so overwhelming," he said.
"I would say that this is the most obvious unexplored area of
neuroscience; drugs which change the brain in a fundamental way and yet
we don't bother studying them because it's too difficult or we are to
scared of falling foul of the regulators or the media."
But Mr Barnes from DrugScope cautioned that the recreational
or problematic use of drugs should not be conflated with the important
issue of researching possible therapeutic or medical benefits that some
psychoactive substances may offer.
"A carefully controlled and supervised study, using a pure
formulation of psilocybin under controlled conditions, is very different
from how most people would ingest the substance in magic mushrooms.
"As with medicines which use active chemicals present in
cannabis, pharmaceutical products derived from any psychoactive
substances will differ significantly from street drugs."
Prof Nutt resists comparisons with the 1960s guru Timothy
Leary who advocated the use of LSD. His view was that if everyone took
LSD all the time they would be better people. They would have nicer,
happier lives.
"I'm not recommending anyone taking any drugs. I'm just
suggesting we need to have a more scientific rational approach to drugs
and vilifying drugs like psilocybin whilst at the same time actively
promoting much more dangerous drugs like alcohol is totally stupid
scientifically."
