Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was first synthesised in 1938 by Albert Hoffman at the Sandoz AG Pharmaceutical Company in Basel, Switzerland LSD was the 25th lysergic acid derivative developed by Hoffman during a discovery project for pharmacologically active derivatives of lysergic acid which would act as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant LSD became widely used …
Order Printed Materials Print at Home Materials As UK students look forward to an ‘in person’ Freshers Week this September, the research and policy charity Drug Science has enlisted the help of student ambassadors to help spread the word about the potential benefits of medical cannabis, and tell the honest and factual truth about drugs …
There is no defined road to legalising psychedelics, but there are many options available. Ismail Lourido Ali, of MAPS, discusses the important nuances in this Drug Science webinar on expanding access to psychedelics. Due to the recent progress of medical cannabis legalisation, many expect psychedelics to follow a similar path of medical legalisation, followed by …
In this webinar, Dr Meg Spriggs explains the potential of psilocybin to treat anorexia nervosa, and offers valuable insights from the clinical trial investigating this application at the Centre for Psychedelic Research. Eating disorders are a complex mental health issue with few effective pharmaceutical treatments available. Meg provides an introductory background to some of the …
By Rayyan Zafar an Honorary Research Assistant for Drug Science Can a ‘double standard’ in paediatric medicine provide a framework to restructure repressive medical cannabis policies? In 2019, a drug called Zolgensma came to market. This drug used a particularly innovative gene therapy technique to treat infants suffering with an extremely rare and catastrophic neuromuscular …
By Dr Anna Ross, an Honorary Research Assistant for Drug Science A reflection on the article “Coming Out”: Stigma, reflexivity and the drug researchers drug use. In 2015 I started a PhD in drug policy at the University of Edinburgh. It had been a long journey, and at the age of 34, with two …
By Dr Hannah Thurgur an Honorary Research Assistant for Drug Science As we welcome in the new year, Drug Science reflects on the year of 2020 for psilocybin research and celebrates these achievements. Here we focus on the use of psilocybin-assisted therapy in three different conditions to reflect the breadth of research currently taking place …
By Rayyan Zafar an Honorary Research Assistant for Drug Science It was 5 years ago in 2016 when Nick Clegg, the then deputy prime-minister of the United Kingdom became aware of a group of patients suffering with the severe nerve-wasting syndrome, multiple sclerosis, who were using cannabis to treat their condition. He heard accounts of …
Ayahuasca has been used as a medicine in Mesoamerican ceremonies for thousands of years, but the primary psychoactive compound, DMT, was not synthesised until 1931. DMT was studied during the wave of psychedelic research in the 1950s and 60s until research was banned in 1971 by the Convention of Psychotropic Substances. Ayahuasca was not included …
In this seminar, Professor Barnes provides a walkthrough of how to prescribe medical cannabis under the current UK regulations and the future of prescribing in the UK. You will learn how various compounds in cannabis work and the effect that they have on the human body, as well as the different formulations of medical cannabis …
We are now recruiting Honorary Research Assistants to join our team. We are in an exciting stage of growth as an organisation and have several opportunities to contribute to existing and developing research projects. This includes (but is not limited to) helping with literature reviews, data collection, data analysis and publications. Please note, as this …
MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) was first synthesised in 1912 by chemists at the pharmaceutical company, Merck in Germany. In 1985, MDMA was placed in schedule 1, resulting in no research being conducted into the potential therapeutic applications of MDMA between 1985 – 2000. However, since then, MDMA has been included in over 5000 academic articles and administered to …
The psychotropic effects of Psilocybe mushrooms were largely unknown in the West until the 1950s, despite evidence that they had a long history of indigenous use in Central and South America, and possibly other parts of the world. Western civilisations had very little knowledge of this relatively ‘new‘ psychotropic and subsequently banned research into its …
What do horse riding, motorsports, base jumping, mountain climbing, storm chasing, and drug use have in common? They are of all course all potentially dangerous activities pursued for a thrill, a rush, and often a great deal of enjoyment. But in our modern-day prohibitionist culture, one of those things is not seen as being like …
Calling all students! Drug Science is very excited to announce the launch of the Drug Science Student Society. The Drug Science Student Society is a student-led group which aims to provide evidence-based education on all psychoactive substances. Historically, political interference has prevented evidence-based drug policy from guiding decisions in law, social care and medicine. Drug …
On the 1st of November 2018, medicinal cannabis products were removed from schedule 1 and placed in schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. This change in the law has left patients, medical professionals and law enforcement perplexed about who should and who should not have access to medicinal cannabis. As access to …