A Scottish university said it is to cut down animal testing in the wake of claims that needless experiments are being conducted.

Aberdeen University has said it is committed to reducing animal testing in laboratories after criticism from campaigners.

The move follows complaints by an anti-vivisection group that scientists injected rats with cannabis to examine how the drug affects memory.

A university spokesman confirmed the experiment was carried out in 2004, but said staff were "striving to promote good practice" in laboratory animal welfare.

The spokesman added that all of the university's animal experiments had been carried out in accordance with strict Home Office controls.

He commented: "Aberdeen University is committed to the reduction, replacement and refinement of animal testing.

"The use of animals is controlled by the Home Office and the university strives to promote good practice in laboratory animal welfare and the development of non-animal replacement methods."

The experiments were said to have involved inject- ing the rats with cannabis and dropping them into a vat of milk.

Scientists then watched to see if the rodents could remember the location of a submerged platform.

A spokesman for the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) said: "Aberdeen University has been caught red-handed abusing and harming animals in pointless experiments."

The BUAV claimed universities around the UK spend a total of £1m a year on experiments involving animals.

Its report was based on a review of papers on animal research into banned substances published in scientific journals since 1997.

The Creatures of Habit report by BUAV scientist Dr Katy Taylor claimed UK universities had repeatedly won licences from the Home Office to give often lethal doses of crystal meth, cocaine, cannabis, speed and ecstasy to animals.

Cambridge University was singled out for conducting "frivolous" tests on mice that involved combining lethal doses of methamphetamine, or "crystal meth", and loud music from Bach and the band The Prodigy.

Another Cambridge study, funded by the Medical Research Council, involved testing the effect of amphetamines on rats subjected to isolation, it was claimed. In a third project rats were made addicted to cocaine.

The report also cited research at Birmingham University designed to see if rats given cannabis developed "the munchies" - a hunger-enhancing effect well known in humans. This study would have cost the university up to £100,000, BUAV said.

Other Scottish establishments mentioned in the report include St Andrews, Dundee and Glasgow universities.

Professor Barry Everitt of the Medical Research Coun-cil said: "Studying the ways in which drugs affect the brain provides a window into both normal and abnormal function and thereby unique opportunities to develop new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

"It is not possible, for ethical reasons, to study the devel-opment of drug addiction in humans and so scientists first need to understand where and how legal and illegal drugs affect the brain."

He added: "This has been done successfully in mice and rats and has hence played a crucial role in explaining the previously unknown destructive, as well as the addictive, effects of cannabis while also providing a completely unpredicted anti-cannabinoid treatment for reducing appetite and treating obesity."