Policy

Brain science, addiction and drugs

Summary| Working Group Membership| Terms of Reference| Project Downloads

The UK Government has asked the Academy of Medical Sciences to undertake an independent review of the issues raised in the Foresight report, ‘Drugs Futures 2025?’

An Academy working group has been convened to consider, in consultation with experts and the public, issues around three types of substance: illegal and legal ‘recreational’ drugs; medicines for mental health; and a category of substances termed ‘cognition enhancers’ that might enhance the performance of the ‘healthy’ brain in specific ways, such as enhancing short term memory or speed of thought.

This study will culminate with an Academy report, to be published by the end of 2007, which will include recommendations for public policy and future research needs.

Public engagement update:

As part of this project, the Academy commissioned a national programme of public engagement activities, designed to explore the views of a broad cross-section of the public on current and future drug use. Entitled drugfutures, the programme incorporated over 25 workshops and an online consultation. The consultation is now closed.

Funded by the Office of Science and Innovation's Sciencewise programme, the results from drugsfutures will inform the recommendations of the Academy's working group. The drugsfutures project was launched at the end of January 2007, with an evening event attended by members of the public, scientific experts and policymakers. Over the next 3 months, face-to face workshops were held in 8 locations across the U.K (Belfast, Birmingham, Exeter, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Merthyr Tydfil, Norwich). At each event, a mixture of small group discussions and plenary sessions were used and participants were provided with materials to challenge and inform. Future scenarios were used as one way of presenting different perspectives and served to ‘kick-start’ debate. Written information was supplemented with presentations and Q&A sessions with scientific experts and service users. An on-line consultation provided further opportunity for members of the public to express their views.

The drugsfutures programme was delivered on behalf of the Academy by a consortium of organizations led by the Office for Public Management.

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Professor Sir Gabriel Horn FRS (Chair)
Chair, Cambridge University Government Policy Programme, University of Cambridge.
Professor Jacqueline Barnes
Professor of Psychology, Institute for the Study of Children, Families & Social Issues, Birkbeck, University of London.

Professor Roger Brownsword
Professor of Law, King's College London.

Professor JF William Deakin FMedSci
Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit, University of Manchester.

Professor Ian Gilmore
Consultant Physician & Gastroenterologist, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, and Honorary Professor of Medicine, Liverpool University.

Dr Matthew Hickman
Senior Lecturer in Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol.

Professor Leslie Iversen FRS
Professor of Pharmacology, Oxford University.

Professor Trevor Robbins FRS FMedSci
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge.

Professor Eric Taylor FMedSci
Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute if Psychiatry, King's College London.

Professor Jonathan Wolff
Professor of Philosophy, University College London.

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The remit of the Working Group is to:

• Consider, in consultation with experts and the public, the societal, health, safety and environmental issues raised in the Foresight report ‘Drugs Futures 2025?’.
• Report back to the Department of Health and other Government Stakeholder Departments with recommendations for public policy and research needs.
• In the course of the consultation, consider the Government’s policy priorities in this area.
  

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• Brain science, addiction and drugs - report [1.26mb]
• Brain science, addiction and drugs - summary [322.43k]
• Brain science, addiction and drugs - press release [77.55k]
• drugsfutures - report of public engagement [2.36mb]
• drugsfutures - appendix to public engagement report including reusable resources for events [5.37mb]

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