Anti-drug laws are blocking the progress of far-reaching research that can show the therapeutic uses of Psilocybe mushrooms, plants like cannabis and other psychedelia like MDMA. That is what Professor David Nutt contends, after he first sounded the alarm bells on 12 June 2013 in Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
The world-wide drug repression, also called the War on Drugs, is blocking opportunities to perform thorough research into the medicinal qualities of a diverse range of drugs. The British professor David Nutt is the forerunner in the fight to lift this blockade. Nutt is professor of Neuro-psycho pharmacology at Imperial College London, Chairman of the Independent Scientific Drugs Committee and has for years specialised in performing scientific research into the effects of different kinds of drugs and the link with addiction, phobias and depressions. The professor was also a drug advisor to the English parliament, but after he openly criticised British drug policy and campaigned against the re-classification of cannabis to a class B drug, he was fired in 2009.
Scientific censorship
David Nutt is regularly on the news with his daring pronouncements with which he wants to spotlight the unfounded ban on drugs. On 12 June 2013, he was again featured in the media by The Guardian, among others. Together with another ex-parliamentary drug advisor, Leslie King, from the University of North Carolina, he criticised the ‘scientific ban’, enforced by the United Nations and others, which makes extended research into the medicinal qualities of substances such as cannabis, psilocybin from mushrooms and 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (or MDMA), virtually impossible.
Current drug legislation is “absurd and old-fashioned” according to Nutt and in the article, he goes into great detail to explain why. The professor maintains that most drugs are prohibited because of the reputed dangers that are often quite exaggerated in hindsight. “Drug legislation has never been updated, despite a number of indications and even scientific proof that many drugs are relatively safe,” says Nutt. “It seems as though international policy makers find it impossible to bring about change in this area.”
Professor Nutt, who recently completed a number of studies into the qualities of psylocybins – the effective ingredient in magic mushrooms – finds that “if one were to approach drug regulation on a more rational level, it would enable researchers to make advances in studies that look into conciousness and brain activity in regards to psychoses. This could lead to new treatment methods for depressions and post traumatic stress syndrome, for example.”
The Future
It goes without saying that David Nutt, Leslie King and David Nichols are calling for a dispensation on the stringent restrictions that are put on psycho-active drugs in order to make scientific research possible. Sensi Seeds wants to emphasize that we want to remain impartial in the discussion to legalise all forms of drugs, but as far as the medicinal qualities of natural substances in general, and cannabis in particular, the company fully stands behind the view points of Professor Nutt and his colleagues. Sensi Seeds hopes that their struggle will lead to new insights with our policy makers worldwide for the benefit of patients who are helped by medicinal cannabis and all the other kinds of natural remedies.
Source: Sensi Seeds
