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Anger at Nutt's £1/2m magic mushroom test: Sacked drugs tsar given public funds to see if the class A drug can cause depression



Campaigners have criticised a decision to award £550,000 of public funds to a sacked government drugs tsar so he can investigate whether magic mushrooms work in treating depression.

Professor David Nutt was forced out of his role as the Government’s chief drug adviser in 2009 for saying ecstasy was less dangerous than horseriding.

He now wants to study whether the hallucinogenic ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, can be used to treat severe depression.


His team has been given a grant by the Medical Research Council for a pioneering trial on 60 sufferers who have failed to respond to two previous treatments.

But he said he cannot start because the Home Office must first grant a licence for companies to supply his team with the compound.

Critics say Professor Nutt’s track record makes him an inappropriate choice to carry out the research.

Previously, he opposed the decision to reclassify cannabis from Class C to Class B in 2009, and has argued alcohol was ‘considerably more dangerous’ than the drug.


Last year, he led a controversial live trial of pure ecstasy on Channel 4.

Mary Brett, of Europe Against Drugs, said of the latest project: ‘Why are the MRC giving money to a man who had got it completely wrong over cannabis? Professor Nutt’s patchy record raises questions. He seems obsessed with recreational drugs.’

Magic mushrooms, with heroin and cocaine, are Class A drugs and are believed to exacerbate mental health problems in some users.


Previously Professor Nutt’s team at Imperial College London found psilocybin reduced activity in a part of the brain known to be over-active in depression.


But that study was on healthy volunteers subject to less stringent regulations.

Only four hospitals in Britain have a licence to hold psilocybin, and Professor Nutt said the authorities refused to tell him where.

He said: ‘The rules are absurd.’


Risk: Magic mushrooms, with heroin and cocaine, are Class A drugs and are believed to exacerbate mental health problems in some users

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