Daily Mail - A vicar, a pop star's dad and an ex-MP all taking drugs on live TV....

[edgarshade]

A vicar, a pop star's dad and an ex-MP all taking drugs on live TV. Pioneering science - or a cynical new low from Channel 4?

By Zoe Brennan
PUBLISHED: 00:12, 22 September 2012

With reader comments

The blonde woman is given a tablet to swallow, before being prepared for an MRI scan in a vast, space-age machine. Doctors study graphic images of her brain, looking for unusual activity. Asked how she feels, she replies: ‘Light. It’s pleasant. There’s an airiness and openness to the senses. A slight heightening of sensory perception, which I liked. The visual feeling is vivid.The colours are lush, which I enjoy. I might be a bit more alert to sounds. I feel physically relaxed and that is a pleasure.

Critics have pointed out that, far from dissuading young viewers from taking drugs, comments like this may have the opposite effect. ‘The first two words that come to mind are reckless and pointless,’ says Julia Manning, chief executive of independent think-tank 2020 Health. ‘We are fully aware of the effects of Class A drugs on the body. ‘This will achieve nothing. If anything it will ‘celebritise’ the taking of illegal substances. This is purely anecdotal. It’s not part of any proper study. It’s publicity-seeking TV at its worst.’ However, the participants all claim that there are valid reasons for taking part in the study. ‘I wasn’t entering into this hoping to get a free high,’ says Dr Evan Harris, a former Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon. ‘I was just keen to help the study.’ Dr Harris says that he hopes scientists will one day find a dose of MDMA that might treat depression without making patients high. He admits taking drugs previously, saying: ‘In order to be allowed to take part in the trial, I needed to have taken Ecstasy at least once before without any ill-effects. Without going over my ‘Ecstasy history’, I qualified.’

Simon Antrobus, chief executive of the drugs charity Addaction, says: ‘There are a lot of risks associated with drugs like this, not least that [in real-life situations] you can never be sure exactly what it is that you have taken. ‘People don’t take drugs under clinical conditions where a team of experts are on hand . . . they use them as a short-term escape from a range of personal and emotional problems. ‘Our concern is that this programme will be unrepresentative of street drug taking.’ A spokesman for the Home Office is also unequivocal in the Government’s condemnation of the exercise, saying: ‘Televising the use of illegal drugs risks trivialising a serious issue.’

Defending the experiment, Professor Nutt says: ‘Nearly half a million people are believed to take Ecstasy or MDMA every year in the UK, but there has been very little research into what it does in the brain. ‘We’ll see why it makes people feel empathetic, why kids use it.’ He adds: ‘Ecstasy has been vilified, which I think is unfortunate because it is one of the most interesting of illegal drugs. Millions of people have used it in this country, relatively few come to harm. Ten to 20 people die a year and 300 die of paracetamol overdose.’ Asked if he was concerned the series will promote drug taking, he says: ‘I don’t think that people interested in drugs are going to be encouraged by seeing middle-aged people taking drugs on the telly. It might even put them off.’

Yet ‘brave’ is not the word that Paul Betts, whose daughter Leah died on her 18th birthday in 1995 after taking Ecstasy, would use to describe it. He spent years campaigning against drugs after her death. The heart-rending photograph he released of his young daughter on a life-support machine, as a stark warning to drug users, is an image few will ever forget. ‘What is going to be the benefit of this programme?’ he asks. ‘What is its purpose? Someone is certainly going to earn a lot of money out of it, and it will encourage youngsters to take drugs. ‘I would say to young people watching this, I don’t deny that for hundreds of thousands taking Ecstasy is a pleasurable experience. ‘What people overlook is what can happen to them. Just like in Russian roulette, how do you know if it is going to be you? Is it worth the gamble?’

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ering-science--cynical-new-low-Channel-4.html

 

[Clocktower]

I would say to young people watching this, I don't deny that for hundreds of thousands driving a car is a pleasurable experience. What people overlook is what can happen to them. Just like in Russian Roulette, how do you know if it's going to be you? Is it worth the gamble?

 

[poledriver]

KEITH ALLEN AND LIONEL SHRIVER TO TAKE MDMA IN LIVE TELEVISED DRUG TRIAL ON CHANNEL 4

Channel 4 are to host the UK’s first ever live televised drug trial.

As The Guardian report, 26 volunteers have been recruited for the show. The subjects were either given MDMA or a placebo; after an hour, readings were taken with an fMRI machine. Subjects also had their brain activity tracked when asked to recall happy or upsetting memories. Among the subjects are former Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris, We Need To Talk About Kevin author Lional Shriver and goon-of-all-trades Keith Allen.

Study leader Professor David Nutt claimed that Channel 4′s intervention has provided funds and resources which have been impossible to source from more official channels: “We have failed to get money for research from conventional sources, which is why the Channel 4 intervention is fantastic. Nearly half a million people are believed to take ecstasy or MDMA every year in the UK, but there has been very little research into what it does in the brain. These experiments will give us a much clearer picture of the fundamental effects of MDMA on the resting brain than anyone has been able to get before.”

Concerns have, understandably, been raised about the possibility of the show glamorising or trivialising use of the drug. Rebutting the claims on BBC Radio 4′s The Life Scientific, Nutt has stressed that the study will be a “serious documentary on the science of MDMA’”. MDMA has been touted by some as having possible applications as a psychotherapeutic tool, particularly in relation to PTSD – claims the documentary hopes to put to the test.

It’s not the first time Professor Nutt has found himself in the public eye in relation to clubbing drugs. In 2009 he was engaged in a high-profile spat with then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith after quoting statistics that horse riding was more dangerous than taking ecstasy.

Continued with user comments at -

http://www.factmag.com/2012/09/19/ke...-on-channel-4/

 

[edgarshade]

Guardian


Interview by Oliver Laughland
The Guardian, Friday 21 September 2012 21.00 BST

With reader comments

David Nutt and Julia Manning: is it right to take ecstasy in a TV trial?
Professor David Nutt plans to test ecstasy live on Channel 4 to study its effects on the brain. Health campaigner Julia Manning says he risks glamorising the drug.

Next week Professor David Nutt will test the effects of MDMA – otherwise known as ecstasy – on a number of volunteers live on TV in a research project funded by Channel 4. Julia Manning, chief executive of thinktank 2020Health believes the experiment is reckless. Oliver Laughland chairs.

David Nutt: The project has two purposes. The first is to show the whole process – from design to analysis – of a scientific experiment being performed. The second is to do the first UK imaging study of the human brain with [the effects of] MDMA, using the latest technology. The drug has been around for 50 years, and been used massively by young people. It also has important therapeutic potential and it's necessary, from the perspective of a neuroscientist, to understand what it does in the brain.

Julia Manning: It's reckless and pointless. We have a high regard for British scientific research. But I was alarmed when I heard about this. I don't believe it is a serious scientific study. It's been funded by Channel 4 because the Medical Research Council (MRC) and other authoritative bodies wouldn't fund it.

DN: The research quality in this study is world-leading, using cutting-edge neuro-imaging technology and analysis. It will be published in the highest-quality journals. It's being funded by a television company not because other funders don't value the qualities of the research. When we put this study as part of a larger project to the MRC, it was scored very highly, but didn't fit in with the MRC's portfolio of addiction. As we know, MDMA is not addictive. I should be commended for finding a way of doing quality science, which otherwise wouldn't happen.

JM: Simply because you're using high technology doesn't make it quality. I also dispute that MDMA isn't addictive, because it's an amphetamine and it's well-known that amphetamines are addictive. Ecstasy and other drugs are illegal for good reasons. Not just for scientific reasons – it's because of the social, economic and moral messages that it sends out as well.

More...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/21/ecstasy-david-nutt-channel-4