Prof Nutt - Scientists' agony over ecstasy

[edgarshade]

Guardian

David Nutt
Wednesday 18 July 2012 21.00 BST

With reader comments

Until science can freely study drugs like MDMA, their great therapeutic potential will stay untapped.

There are some goals most scientists share when they embark on their career: to advance your field, to make discoveries, to innovate and to increase knowledge. All of which help towards the scientist's ultimate aim: to improve quality of life for some or all of society.

You might reasonably assume that the law supports these goals – but you'd be wrong. One example is the law relating to the scheduling of drugs – grouping substances according to their current or potential use as medicines. You would expect this law to reflect current research on these substances while enabling more work to be carried out. But when it comes to Schedule I drugs like MDMA (ecstasy), LSD and magic mushrooms, we face almost exactly the opposite situation.

Frustratingly, almost no research has been carried out since current regulations came into force in 1971. And the situation is about to get worse; the government's new temporary drug control orders, under which methoxetamine is the first substance to be controlled, automatically puts new substances under Schedule I for the year that they are controlled. The likelihood of the drug then being downgraded is very remote, given that research will be practically impossible, especially within the year's timeframe.

More...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/18/scientists-study-ecstasy-drugs-mdma-potential

 

[Termino]

There are some studies. Check out this page from the MAPS website.

"MAPS is undertaking a 10 year, $15 million plan to make MDMA into an FDA-approved prescription medicine, and is currently the only organization in the world funding clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. For-profit pharmaceutical companies are not interested in developing MDMA into a medicine because the patent for MDMA has expired. Companies also cannot profit from MDMA because it is only administered a limited number of times, unlike most medications for mental illnesses which are taken on a daily basis"

 

[jam uh weezy]

The most recent medical article I could find(in america at least), was a MAPS one found in Psychiatric Times. It was basically a follow-up study of one they did in in i think 2011