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Alok Jha, science correspondent
London, February 5, 2004 (The Guardian) – The Home Office is considering whether qat, a psychoactive plant outlawed in many countries but legal in the UK, should be banned. The study comes as new research, seen exclusively by the Guardian, points to its potential long-term effects on the brain.
The Home Office's drugs and alcohol research unit began its work into qat late last year and aims to report its findings to the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) in the autumn. If the research unit shows that there is a sufficient level of potential harm for users of qat, the ACMD is likely to recommend that the plant should be banned and classified along with other illegal drugs. The ACMD deemed qat to be safe more than 15 years ago.
A spokesperson for the Home Office denied that there were any immediate plans to control qat under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, but added that the study was necessary because information on the plant was limited.
Qat is an evergreen shrub that grows in mountainous areas of many parts of Africa. In Ethiopia, Yemen and Kenya, the plant is cultivated and several tones a week are exported; the majority ending up in Britain for use by the Somali community.
Cathinone, the plant's main active ingredient, is chemically similar to amphetamine. Users experience euphoria and alertness when they chew its leaves and twigs.
Peter Houghton, a professor of pharmacognosy at King's College London, has been studying the plant with research student Muna Ismail for more than four years. Their latest research shows that another class of chemicals in qat, known as cathedulins, makes the brain release dopamine, and no one knows what long-term effects it may have on the brain.
"We need to find out more about biological activity of these cathedulins, because it adds another dimension to the analysis," said Prof Houghton.
But he added: "Banning it would just make it a sort of attractive black market commodity."
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