Mind-altering drugs and research: from presumptive prejudice to a Neuroscientific Enlightenment?: Science & Society series on "Drugs and Science".

T he Enlightenment was a philosophical, intellectual and cultural movement of the late 17 century that stressed reason, science and freedom of thought over dogma, blind faith and superstitious deism. One of the driving forces of the Enlightenment was the oppression of research and original thought imposed by the Catholic Church. The most extreme example was when astronomers were told that they could not study the universe in case they challenged conventional wisdom. In 1616, the Church banned the writings of Copernicus who had revealed for the first time that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way round as the Church had been teaching. They also threatened Galileo with death unless he desisted in his research on the same topic and recanted his findings. This ban on knowledge lasted for 150 years, and it is probably the worst example of scientific censorship in history. ...................................................... “... current DEA regulations in the USA make it impossible for federally funded researchers to study medicinal cannabis or even the effects of its liberalisation” ......................................................