Drug researchers have warned that a bill to ban the sale of all psychoactive substances will be disastrous for brain research in the UK.
The Home Office bill, outlined in the Queen’s speech, would ban trade in “any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect”.
Ministers hope to shut down the emergence of new legal highs, which have been blamed for a number of deaths in recent years. But scientists warned that the measure could pre-emptively ban a number of potentially useful new substances.
“It’s going to end brain research in this country,” said Prof David Nutt, a former chief drug adviser to the government. “It will be disastrous. The ban on legal highs has been very destructive to research into Parkinson’s and into anti-smoking drugs.
“For example, the only drug for Parkinson’s is a cathinone
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