The time-honoured tradition of self-experimenation

[AlbertChemist]

This question deals with the legality of self experimentation (of uncontrolled substances).

History is full of examples of researchers testing their creations on themselves to glean the effects, and safety, first hand. Recently however, this practice seems to have become, let's say, "frowned upon" by mainstream science. (Why, I don't know, since the implicit assumption seems to be that the safety of the scientist is somehow more important than that of clinical volunteers...)

But all is not lost, and occasionally self experimentation is still practiced. A recent example can be found in this article, where the researcher took the drug himself to study its metabolism. Self experiment paper

So now to the point of this post. As the above paper shows that self experiments are legal in some places like German. But is this the case everywhere? Are there any countries where doing such a self experiment would actually be against the law, without the approval of some comity or such?

I'd be curious to know of any examples and where one could find this information.

Cheers,

Al

 

[Voidmatrix]

In places like the U.S. it would be in kind of a grey area relative to legality unless it is "substantially similar" (in composition or effect) to an already scheduled drug, or at least that what Shulgin stated. Granted that was the 90s and times have changed. I wouldn't be surprised if this one hadn't though.

I am going to look up and see if Sweden or maybe even Portugal would be lax enough to allow such self experimentation.

I am curious as well.

One love

 

[Voidmatrix]

Found this. Review of Scientific Self-Experimentation: Ethics History, Regulation, Scenarios, and Views Among Ethics Committees and Prominent Scientists - PubMed the abstract sounds like the article may answer some of your questions.

 

[Seeingisbelieving]

This is what stopped Sasha, and others in their tracks. You could do a bit of research to find out what countries do not have a an analog act such as the United States. Sasha was very outspoken about being a drug policy advocate and urged everyone to become active in this way. I believe in the practice of 'civil disobedience' as a beginning step but also think that a full scale educational reform is needed and currently happening regarding psychedelics. With these drugs being introduced into the mental health field we will be seeing more chemists designing shorter duration drugs with less negative side effects. I believe the time for open and creative experimentation is near.