Mind-altering drugs research call from Prof. David Nutt

January 25, 2012 | Source: BBC News
Magic_Mushroom

Magic Mushroom (Psilocybe semilanceata) (credit: Ralpharama/Wikimedia Commons)

Former U.K. government drugs adviser Prof. David Nutt of Imperial College London has said that “overwhelming” regulations should be relaxed to enable researchers to experiment on mind-altering drugs.

Nutt told BBC News that magic mushrooms, LSD, ecstasy, cannabis, and mephedrone all have potential therapeutic applications, but were not being studied because of the restrictions placed on researching illegal drugs.

Nutt was fired by the home secretary from his government advisory role three years ago for saying that ecstasy and LSD were less harmful than alcohol.

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.

He said the harm from illegal drugs could be equal to
harm in other parts of life, such as horse-riding, hence his invented term “equasy” or “equine addiction syndrome.”

See also:
news | “This is your brain on magic mushrooms”
news | “Fed-funded research: magic mushrooms create ‘openness’”