A trial that could lead to the use of magic mushroom treatments for depression has been stalled because of absurd regulations restricting the use of illegal drugs in research, it has been claimed.
Study leader Professor David Nutt, who was controversially sacked from his role as the Government's chief drug adviser in 2009, says archaic rules obstructing scientific progress should be abolished.
His team at Imperial College London has uncovered evidence that the hallucinogen psilocybin may combat severe depression which resists conventional treatment.
The problem is that psilocybin is the psychoactive ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms and is banned as a Class A drug.
Although the Medical Research Council has awarded a ã550,000 grant for the trial, Professor Nutt said it has not yet been able to proceed.
Speaking ahead of the British Neuroscience Association's Festival of Neuroscience in London, he said: We're not allowed to go and pick the mushrooms anymore and finding a company to provide this illegal drug in a way that can be prepared for trial use as yet has proved impossible.
We are between a rock and a hard place, and that's very unfortunate because if this is an effective treatment, as it may well be for some people, then they are obviously being denied that possibility.
Under the law, academic researchers are not allowed to manufacture their own Class A drugs and must obtain them from external sources.
