Professor may be imprisoned for teaching students how to make drugs

A professor at Matsuyama University in Japan may be imprisoned for 10 years for teaching students how to make ecstasy and “designer drug” 5F-QUPIC in 2013.

Drug enforcement authorities believe 11 students produced ecstasy under Tatsunori Iwamuri’s instruction, who is a professor at Matsuyama University. Four of the students have been referred to prosecutors along with an assistant professor.

The 61-year-old professor told investigators that he was teaching students how to make ecstasy, also known as MDMA, in order to “further their knowledge” of pharmaceuticals.

It is currently legal to manufacture narcotics for academic purposes in Japan. However, a license must be obtained, which Tatsunori Iwamuri did not have at the time.

The university has declared that it will discipline Tatsunori and the assistant professor once the investigation has ended.

“We sincerely apologise for causing serious concern to students and their parents,” said Tatsuya Mizogami, president of Matsuyama University.

Drug enforcement officers failed to discover the drugs in question when they searched Tatsunori’s home. An official from the local health ministry suggested that it had “probably been discarded”.

Instead, officers found traces of 5F-QUPIC, a cannabis-like drug that has been banned in Japan since 2014. The drug is suspected to cause traffic accidents.

Tatsunori had also allegedly been conducting research on drugs containing chemical agents that cause hallucinations or have stimulant effects.

Similar incidents have occurred at institutions across the globe. In March, a chemistry teacher was sentenced to 11 years in a harsh-regime penal colony in Siberia for setting up an underground lab to produce amphetamines.