David Nutt has made major contributions to understanding mechanisms by which psychoactive drugs affect the brain and has conducted numerous clinical trials of a wide range of drugs in patients with various mental disorders. He has also been an outspoken critic of the disconnect between drug science and government drug policies. For example, alcohol is legal, widely available, and causes tremendous harm to individuals and society. On the other hand psychedelics are illegal and yet very safe and can be very beneficial for mental health. In this episode I talk with Professor Nutt about the relative harms and benefits of different drugs to individuals and society. His efforts and those of many other scientists and psychiatrists are pushing governments to accept the facts and help facilitate rather than obstruct science-based progress in drug research and use of that knowledge for medicine and society.

David Nutt is a distinguished professor in the Division of Brain Sciences at Imperial College in London. He is the founder and chairman of Drug Science and host of the Drug Science Podcast.

LINKS:

Drug Science website: https://www.drugscience.org.uk/drug-information/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwuJ2xBhA3EiwAMVjkVG_peCbmMCI9tKIYTUldYjmfjHNxCLeLX2WYvkLPezA7zaJpciU8HhoCGHcQAvD_BwE

Drug Science podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2hLSRIS777SKphWxv4HyDK

Recent relevant articles:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10291338/pdf/fpsyt-14-1183740.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9669276/pdf/fpsyt-13-1027159.pdf

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028390822003161?via%3Dihub

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8625009/pdf/nutrients-13-03938.pdf