MDMA is probably the closest thing we have to a love potion right now, but the actual scientific arrival of ‘love potions’ could be here within the next 10 years, according to experts.

Drugs that use the ‘cuddle hormone’ oxytocin, or even small doses of ecstacy, could spark romance and help couples fall back in love. They could help you strengthen the bonds of long-term relationships or even move on quicker from a painful break-up.

Anthropologist Dr Anna Machin of Oxford University says we now know enough about the human brain to develop drugs which produce the same feelings as love. She told Cheltenham Science Festival:

‘There are lots of ethical questions… but love drugs are certainly on the horizon.

We know enough now about the neurochemistry of love to probably suggest some things you could take to enhance your abilities to find love – or to increase the possibility that you will stay in love when it’s getting a little bit tricky.

And certainly one of the frontiers of love research commercially – can you imagine how much money you make? – is in exploring these possible love drugs.’

Nice that she acknowledges the $$$-making side of it, but is there anything wrong with that if these ‘love potions’ turn out to be a net positive for mankind?

Dr Machin actually reckons we’ll get a glimpse of these sort of legal drugs in the next three to five years:

‘Oxytocin could be available within a decade for people to squirt up their nose before they go out on a Saturday night – at the same time as a glass of prosecco.

There are more ethical questions surrounding MDMA [ecstasy] so that is likely to take longer.’

Levels of oxytocin increase in the human body during hugging. Dr Machin, who has written a book called Why We Love, says:

‘It could help people become more confident when dating and help them fall in love.’

Well, that’s something to look forward to isn’t it? I’m not sure how it will be different from the real thing but it sounds like they’re going refine the contents and doses somehow so that it’s entirely safe and more, um, ‘natural’? I don’t know. I guess that’s where they find themselves in a bit of an ethical soup, as Dr. Machin says. Will certainly be worth a try though, and seems we’ll have our first samples in the very near future.

For the Chemistry teacher facing jail after getting his students to take MDMA, click HERE. Was he not supposed to do that?