Illegal drugs laws: Clearing a 50-year-old obstacle to research

Many drugs are made “illegal” in an attempt to reduce their availability and so their harms. This control occurs at both national and international levels—in the latter case, in the United Nations conventions that make a whole range of drugs from cannabis to heroin “illegal.” Many people are aware of the challenges to this system of control in terms of human rights abuses by those who seek to implement a prohibitionist approach to drug control, as well as the failure of, and massive collateral damage from, the “War on Drugs” that is currently being waged to stop drug use (LSE-Ending the Drug Wars).

Less well known are the perverse restrictions that these laws have had on pharmacology and therapeutics research. Here I will show how they have led to censoring of life science and medical research, with disastrous consequences that have lasted for more than 50 years and counting.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.