Pubdate: Thu, 18 Sep 2008
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2008 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: Sophie Morris
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

CAN WE CALM DOWN ABOUT ECSTASY

The 50,000 people who spent last weekend expanding their minds and 
sensory perceptions on ecstasy will probably have missed the news 
that the drug might soon be reclassified from A down to B. The fact 
that it is officially considered one of the most dangerous drugs on 
the streets of Britain has most likely escaped them too, for if the 
after-effects of a night taking ecstasy gave even a hint to users 
that it should be ranked alongside heroin, they would probably have 
stuck to the vodka and tonics.

Those convicted of possession of ecstasy face up to seven years' 
imprisonment and dealing could confer a life sentence; the point of 
the archaic classification system being to match the punishment with 
the harm caused by the drug, something it fails to do. "Harm" here 
means the harm caused to the person taking that drug, not those around them.

The charity DrugScope says that, "after taking ecstasy users may feel 
very tired and low and need a long period of sleep to recover" and 
that regular use could lead to sleep problems, lack of energy, 
dietary problems, depression and anxiety. There are also fears that 
we are sitting on a timebomb generation of potential Parkinson's 
sufferers, yet the acid house crew are pushing on a bit now, and 
there is little evidence that they are unravelling.

Ecstasy is not an addictive drug and it is already eight years since 
a Police Foundation inquiry found it to be several thousand times 
less dangerous than heroin and to play a part in fewer than 10 deaths 
per year. Ever since the tragic death of Leah Betts in 1995, though, 
it has been difficult to shake ecstasy's reputation as a killer.

The dangers of ecstasy should not be underestimated. It can lead both 
directly and indirectly to death, and the associated and cumulative 
negative effects it can have on the health of users are potentially 
serious. Yet they pale in comparison with the consequences of alcohol 
and tobacco abuse. When he was chief executive of the Medical 
Research Council, Professor Colin Blakemore said ecstasy was "at the 
bottom of the scale of harm", a view which has since been 
corroborated by other leading experts in science, medicine and the 
police service.

In concentrating on the health fall-out of drugs, Home Office 
classifications short-sightedly ignore the social impact of drug use 
(though ministers are pushing for such consequences to be 
considered), rendering the system as arbitrary as when it was 
introduced under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.

Does anyone remember the one about the clubber who was so blissed out 
on ecstasy that he started a fight on a bus and stabbed an innocent 
bystander? What about the group of lads who each necked a handful of 
pills and gang raped a fellow raver? Or the party-goer who stands 
accused of date rape and is using the fact that he took ecstasy with 
his accuser as a defence? Then there's the woman who broke into her 
own parents home and stole and pawned her mother's jewellery to fund 
her ecstasy habit.

Of course you haven't heard any such tales, because ecstasy does not 
lead to the sort of violent and aggressive behaviour that alcohol 
does, nor does it develop into a dependency which users turn to crime to fund.

Professor David Nutt, the incoming chairman of the Advisory Council 
on the Misuse of Drugs, has admitted that young people know that 
ecstasy is "relatively" safe. Pretending any different undermines 
having any classification system at all, where one is much needed.
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