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Drugs: Testing

Answer

In order to be licensed under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 a project must be for one of the ““permissible purposes”” listed in section 5(3) of the Act.These include:"the prevention (whether by the testing of any product or otherwise) or the diagnosis or treatment of disease, ill-health or abnormality, or their effects, in man, animals or plants;""the assessment, detection, regulation or modification of physiological conditions in man, animals or plants; and""and the advancement of knowledge in biological or behavioural sciences."Any projects using animals involving the use of so-called recreational drugs would have had to satisfy one or more of these requirements. The 1986 Act regulates only the use of live animals and this is only licensed by the Home Office when no other research method would satisfy the research objectives.Studies involving such drugs may provide valuable new information about the modes of action of the individual drugs and drug addiction and abuse in general, their short and long-term adverse effects, and how these can be avoided or managed. Such insights are essential to better inform the prevention and treatment of these activities and conditions. Many such drugs are also currently used or are being further evaluated, for legitimate clinical use.The Home Office does not commission any work where recreational drugs are tested on human subjects, i.e. non-animal testing. Samples have been and will soon be taken again from people who already use drugs to test for the presence of drugs/metabolites in their body fluids. These people take the drugs of their own free will. We are not testing the effect of the drugs on the people but researching or evaluating methods of detecting use. This work is undertaken on behalf of Road Policing and Drug Intervention Programme policies.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

160165; 465 c927W

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Animal welfare Animal experiments Drugs Testing

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk