Scientists Believe Stats on Psychedelic Drugs Key for Research

A new report shows many scientist's belief that restricting psychoactive drugs could harm research findings.

The authors even go so far as to argue that drug laws enacted in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s have hurt vital research into findings regarding the drug's functions and therapeutic uses.

Laws designed to prevent drug use and harm failed to do so, according to psychopharmacologist at Imperial College, London, David Nutt. "The unintended consequence is they've really impeded research and development," Nutt said, via Live Science

Nutt and his colleagues included three classes of drugs restricted by national laws and international conventions, including cannabis, MDMA and psychedelics. Back ground information regarding the study shows that three United Nations treaties from 1961, 1971 and 1988 put a legal system in place for controlling the use of psychoactive drugs.

The authors argue that some of these drugs may have important therapeutic uses. For instance, though Marijuana has been used medicinally for a long time, it can also be used to relieve pain and even muscle spasms in people who suffer from AIDS. Ecstasy has also been found to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder and even improve communication between relationships, according to Nutt.  

But, many researchers go a step further. They believe that certain restrictions can harm the role these drugs play in conscious states. The study notes that these drugs activate a receptor in the brain called 5HT-2A that is most commonly involved in sensation and emotion functions in the brain.

"We cannot understand the brain if we're not studying drugs," Nutt said, via Live Science.

The restrictions were designed to protect against the drugs' perceived dangers, but these dangers are overstated, and are often less severe than those from alcohol, Nutt and his colleagues write. The regulations make it almost impossible to conduct the research necessary to challenge these perceptions, he added. 

Nutt said he believes his findings including research on psychedelic drugs have "opened up a whole new way of how the brain works."

Yet, rest assured, many of the restrictions are not definite. Seventeen U.S. states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, and both Colorado and Washington actually approved recreational use of the same drug.

However, researchers still see hurdles ahead in obtaining information regarding these controversial substances.

"It's time for scientists to stand up and change things," Nutt said.

The paper is published online in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.