“Research goes better with Coke”

“It is not uncommon for large research establishments to conduct studies involving controlled substances, although most institutions don’t talk about it a lot”, admitted Moira Kean, Director of the Research Subjects Protection Programme at the University of Minnesota. “But under the circumstances, we will now review our policies on the handling of controlled substances, and determine whether we perhaps need to step up our laboratory supervision procedures,” she added.

Ms. Kean was speaking after the death of Keith C Kajander, an Associate Professor of Oral Sciences and Cell Biology. “Mr Kajander died of a massive cocaine overdose on April 28th. After his death, we discovered that he had ordered a total of 28 shipments of powdered cocaine hydrochloride since 1992, at a cost to the National Institutes of Health of over $71,000. He said he was administering it to mice as part of a study on pain research, but we’ve not seen any evidence that the animals got any of it, nor did he publish any work on the topic. In fact, most of the time he just locked himself away in his lab for days at a time, and refused to discuss his work. As the university cannot determine how many of the shipments were diverted for his own personal use, we have decided to repay the full $71,000 to the NIH.”

Chronicle of Higher Education (USA) 18/6/99