Scientists decry ‘the worst case of scientific censorship since the church banned Copernicus’

[Playinghardball]

LONDON (Reuters) – The outlawing of drugs such as cannabis, magic mushrooms and other psychoactive substances amounts to scientific censorship and is hampering research into potentially important medicinal uses, leading scientists argued on Wednesday.

Laws and international conventions dating back to the 1960s have set back research in key areas such as consciousness by decades, they argued in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

“The decision to outlaw these drugs was based on their perceived dangers, but in many cases the harms have been overstated,” said David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London.

In a statement accompanying the Nature Reviews paper, he said the laws amounted “to the worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo”.

“The laws have never been updated despite scientific advances and growing evidence that many of these drugs are relatively safe. And there appears to be no way for the international community to make such changes,” he said.

“This hindering of research and therapy is motivated by politics, not science.”

Nutt and Leslie King, both former British government drugs advisers, and co-author David Nichols of the University of North Carolina, called for the use of psychoactive drugs in research to be exempted from severe restrictions.

More at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/12/scientists-decry-the-worst-case-of-scientific-censorship-since-the-church-banned-copernicus/

[Eleanors38]

1. U.S. policy has been this way for many years. All research into

drugs, most especially marijuana, has to be approved by that well-known scientific body called the DEA. The result: Virtually no research is carried out by the mist extensive system of research universities in the world. Yet all manner of dangerous substances are studied by universities.

[ReRe]

2. Really... we need to come out of the effing dark ages....

"The hindering of research and therapy is motivated" by RELIGION, er, I mean right wing politics.

[mountain grammy]

3. Well, there was "Reefer Madness."

[MissMarple]

4. Was that the twenties. It was ...interestng.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. That was the first thought I had

when I read that comment about the dangers being overstated.....because what was more overstated than Reefer Madness.

[MissMarple]

5. It has significantly decreased the number of seizures a very little girl here has.

It's low in the part that makes one high and has more of what affects the seizures. It's locally developed here and can't cross state lines. This is a national health care dilemma. The Stanley brothers have a non profit to help people with this. It seems cheep to make and administer. Big pharm must hate it. Here in Colorado Springs, theraputic weed is helping small chldren. That is fabulous.

[Electric Monk]

8. Cannabidiol (also called CBD)

http://projectcbd.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabidiol

[Auggie]

19. "Big pharm must hate it." I'd suspect this reason more ...

than right-wing ideology.

[RedCappedBandit]

6. Obviously the drug crusaders don't care about science. nt

[enough]

7. k&r (nt)

[Generic Other]

9. This is not worse than denial of basic principles of evolution

That seems a fairly big ommission to me.

[theplanfor2016]

11. While I may disagree with some of the hyperbole...

still an interesting article and worth a read.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. I don't see any hyperbole at all. Care to specifiy what you don't agree with?

It's actually quiet measured and accurate.

[theplanfor2016]

14. Fair question.

I think comparing any treatment of today's scientists to the treatment of heretical researchers by the Church after Copernicus and Galileo....is somewhat misplaced. The church wasn't exactly tolerant of heliocentric theory. While drug research is certainly being hampered by small minds, which is awful and costs lives, scientists hoping to study marijuana aren't being labeled as minions of the Devil and threatened with death. I hope that seems reasonable.

[Warren DeMontague]

15. People who put prohibited substances in their own bodies only get thrown in prison for decades.

That's all.

[theplanfor2016]

16. My apologies

I thought we were talking about the treatment of scientists and their research, not the ridiculous treatment of drug offenders. Forgive me if my interpretation of the article was too literal.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. No, I get you.

Taken as a whole, though, the drug war has taken on an Inquisition-like fervor. Far more perceptive folks than myself have drawn that analogy.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Ever press a flower in a book?

If I did that to one of those in the picture I would be booking a quality shroom in Vegas.

[DeSwiss]

18. K&R

[WinkyDink]

20. Once again, ancient wisdom trumps the modern world.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

21. Humans have lived on the earth along with all these plants for eons.

Then a small group of legislators declare these plants to be illegal for 7 billion humans to use, are these legislators experts in neuroscience? How many of them have ever ingested any of these plants?

Let me be perfectly clear here, I have used some of these plants for over 50 years now and I don't recognize the authority of this small group of legislators to tell me what plants I can use and ingest in my body.

[Eleanors38]

22. Cannabis & Tobacco: 2 ships passing in a prohibitionist night.

As alcohol prohibition ended as marijuana's began, the baton of ganja will pass to the Marlboro Man, complete with all the corruption, violence, government abuse and moralistic pronouncements of his predecessors.