• Question: have you ever asked yourself why the drugs you are testing are illegal.

    Asked by Quintan Albert to Roisin on 10 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Roisin Jones

      Roisin Jones answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      Great question! In general, drugs are controlled (either totally illegal or controlled via prescription) for one of the following reasons:

      – They are highly addictive
      – They can cause serious harm to the health of the person taking them
      – They are easy to overdose on, either fatally or to the point of serious bodily harm
      – Any combination of the above

      Of course, there is far more to it than that, because if all substances that had one of these properties were made illegal, we wouldn’t have easy access to alcohol, nicotine or caffeine. The reason that some of these substances are illegal and others with similar properties aren’t is usually down to cultural perception and prejudices: if alcohol were only discovered today, chances are it would be made illegal based on the fact that it’s addictive and causes serious bodily harm, but because it has huge cultural connotations and history, it would be difficult to ban successfully today (as the US found out during the prohibition in the 1920’s and 30’s).

      There are also different ‘levels’ of illegal as it were: drugs are classified into what are known as Schedules: there are four main schedules in Ireland, which are classified as follows:

      – Schedule 1: Completely illegal with no medicinal value
      – Schedule 2: Strictly controlled medicinal drugs which have a high likelihood of being abused.
      – Schedule 3: Controlled (rather than strictly controlled) medicinal drugs which have a high likelihood of being abused.
      – Schedule 4: Controlled medicinal drugs.

      Most of the drugs in schedule 1 are there because they’re genuinely dangerous to human health, with the risks far outweighing any benefits, although a notable drug which is in Schedule 1 which is being looked at is cannabis, as many studies have suggested that medicinal cannabis (cannabis with the hallucinogenic part removed) can have huge benefits particularly in the treatment of chronic pain and some seizure disorders.

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