Universities have been accused of conducting "cruel and unnecessary" tests on animals using banned drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines.

 

 

A report from the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) also attacks the Home Office for granting licences for the research. An estimated £10 million had been spent on the experiments in the last 10 years, said the BUAV, which based its findings on figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Cambridge University was singled out for conducting "frivolous" tests on mice that involved combining lethal doses of methamphetamine, or "crystal meth", and loud music from Bach and the dance band The Prodigy.

Another Cambridge study, funded by the Medical Research Council, involved testing the effect of amphetamines on rats subjected to enforced isolation, it was claimed. In a third research project rats were made addicted to cocaine.

The report also cited research at the University of Birmingham designed to see if rats given cannabis got "the munchies" - a hunger-enhancing effect well known in humans. This study would have cost the university up to £100,000, the BUAV estimated.

Similar tests had taken place at Liverpool, Nottingham, Aberdeen university, as well as De Montfort university in Leicester.

Most of these experiments were "a complete waste of time" from a scientific point of view, the BUAV claims. Animal testing of alcohol, tobacco and cosmetics is banned in the UK.

Professor Barry Everitt of the Medical Research Council said: "Studying the ways in which drugs affect the brain provides a window into both normal and abnormal function and thereby unique opportunities to develop new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

"It is not possible, for ethical reasons, to study the development of drug addiction in humans and so scientists first need to understand where and how legal and illegal drugs affect the brain.

"This has been done successfully in mice and rats and has hence played a crucial role in explaining the previously unknown destructive, as well as the addictive effects of cannabis while also providing a completely unpredicted anti-cannabinoid treatment for reducing appetite and treating obesity."

 

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