UK: Tory MP Crispin Blunt Suggests Rules Around Psychedelics Might Be A Good Idea

A Tory minister who talks sense on Cannabis & Psychedelics. It’s hard to believe but Mr Blunt (well named) is a oasis of sanity in the desert that is UK drugs policy

The Daily Mail spins it thus

Tory MP Crispin Blunt has called for rules around the use of mind-altering drugs for medical research to be relaxed – including psychedelics ‘known to trigger psychotic episodes’.

The former minister, MP for Reigate in Surrey, has suggested the lives of millions of people in the UK could be ‘dramatically’ improved if the rules around particular substances are eased.

Mr Blunt said psychedelics such as psilocybin are ‘extremely safe’ and could potentially offer a ‘major step change’ in mental health research.

His comments come as new research published in the Lancet this month suggests a single, small dose of psilocybin can reduce symptoms of depression without serious adverse effects.

But the NHS currently lists psilocybin on a list of ‘drugs known to trigger psychotic episodes’.

Speaking during an adjournment debate in the Commons, Mr Blunt said: ‘Foregone medical treatment is just one element of the cost of blanket narcotic prohibition.

‘But it is very great once we understand the treatments we’ve denied ourselves amidst the moral panic underpinning prohibition. To no class of drugs is this urgent repair more needed than the psychedelics.

‘First, the opportunity for a major step change in mental health treatment is real.”

He added: ‘It really is revolutionary and has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of millions of our fellow citizens.

 ‘These extremely safe drugs are in the most stringently controlled class and schedule, based not on any historic or contemporary assessment of their toxicity or dangers, but simply that there were no submissions made to British or American regulators of medical products containing psilocybin before the instatement of the UN single convention through the UK’s Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.’

The MP also said one option available to the minister was to conduct a review ‘with a view to rescheduling’ of psychedelics, including psilocybin.

He asked: ‘When the evidence and need are so overwhelming, just like it was for cannabis-based products for medicinal use, for what reason can the Government wait to take decisive action?

Read more at 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11860163/Tory-MP-calls-rules-use-mind-altering-drugs-medical-research-relaxed.html

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