A top university in London has called for voluntary participation of its students in a clinical research that involves the Class A drug: Cocaine.
King's College London has invited its students to be part of "comparison of novel detection methods of cocaine". According to the reports, thousands of e-mails were sent to undergraduates and postgraduate students Thursday evening to volunteer for the scientific research program.
The college has also offered to pay reasonable compensation. The one-of-its-kind project has also got approval from London Westminster Research Ethics Committee.
The project involves the "nasal administration of cocaine."
The clinical research is not open to all and sundry, there are certain restrictions. The officials responsible for the research have drawn certain guidelines and criteria to select the subjects for the experiment. And it's a complete all-men program.
The key requirements that need to be met by the participants are: Healthy male volunteers aged between 25 and 40 years, have no past medical history and not be users of recreational drugs. And they should be okay with the condition that restricts them from cutting or dying their hair for 120 days during the study investigating period.
The experiment would last for about 90 days and it will be monitored by clinical toxicology department at St Thomas' Hospital.
"You are under no obligation to reply to this email, however if you choose to, participation in this research is voluntary and you may withdraw at anytime," said an unidentified professor's mail of the KCL, according to the Huffington Post.
The mail instantly became a hit with the students, even as some of them were skeptical about the authenticity of the email.
"University asking students to take cocaine? You know, just another day at King's College London. You have to admit, King's really do care about their students," wrote Tomáš Vítek, student, on Facebook.
A KCL student, David Wilkinson, tweeted, "KCL emails to ask if we'd be willing to take part in a clinical study "involving the nasal administration of cocaine". And they'll pay us."
"KCL nasal cocaine clinical trial. I checked, I have the e-mail," said another tweeted.
"This is an important scientific study to investigate how cocaine and its metabolites are spread through the human body," spokesman for KCL said, according to London Evening Standard.
"All the relevant ethical approvals were received for this study. The study will be conducted under the highest level of medical supervision in a dedicated clinical research suite. Further information about the NHS ethical approval process, which was followed, is available on our website," he added.