Ethics Approvals for use of Live Animals for the Testing of Synthetic Recreational Drugs

David Saunders made this Official Information request to Ministry for Primary Industries

Response to this request is long overdue. By law Ministry for Primary Industries should have responded by now (details and exceptions). The requester can complain to the Ombudsman.

From: David Saunders

Dear Ministry for Primary Industries,

Following recent publications regarding animal testing and synthetic cannabis and other legal recreational drugs in national news, I would like some additional information regarding the use of live animals for the testing and approval of all legal recreational drugs for the the years of 2011, 2012 and 2013.

a) How many approvals were given for the testing of recreational drugs on live animals which were not at the time banned ("legal highs")

b) What actions were taken and/or conditions imposed to reduce the suffering of these animals during testing

c) How many animals in total were used in such experiments per year, broken down by species

d) Following the recent ban on all legal highs unless they have been proven to not cause harm to humans, what are the ministry's intentions for approved animal testing for proposed legal highs in the future

Yours faithfully,
David Saunders

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