MPs want ecstasy listed as 'soft drug'

[bongme]

hi

The Sunday Telegraph

By David Bamber, Home Affairs Correspondent

19th Sunday 2002 May

A group of senior MPs will call this week for ecstasy, which claims the lives of up to 50 people in Britain every year, to be downgraded to a class B drug.

The controversial move would reduce the maximum penalty for supplying the drug - currently life in prison - to just 14 years.

The Home Affairs Select Committee's long-awaited report on drugs, to be published on Wednesday, will call for ecstasy, which is a class A drug along with heroin and cocaine, to be downgraded to the same category as less harmful drugs such as cannabis and amphetamines.

The proposal was condemned last night by the parents of Leah Betts, who died after taking ecstasy on her 18th birthday in 1995. They said the move would lead to hundreds more deaths and brain damage to young people. Paul Betts, a former Metropolitan police officer, said: "This will send out all the wrong signals to young people that ecstasy is a safe drug when even the Government's own figures shows it kills up to 50 people every year.

"Ecstasy can kill and in America it is becoming known as 'suicide Tuesday' because so many people kill themselves as they come off the drug after the weekend. It will be a very dangerous move to reclassify ecstasy, we will see more young people in psychiatric wards and ruined for life."

Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, also opposed the reclassification. "This drug can kill," he said.

A member of the committee, however, defended the proposal. The MP, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "The police must concentrate on the drugs that do the most serious harm such as heroin and cocaine. Seizing this drug and cracking down on the dealers is the most important job that we can do.

"Ecstasy will remain illegal but we have to face facts. About half a million people take ecstasy every week in Britain, so the current law isn't working."

The recommendation was prompted by drugs charities, who told the committee that Government policies would not be credible in the eyes of the young while ecstasy remained in the highest category of illegal substances.

The reclassification of ecstasy from a class A to a class B drug was first recommended in a landmark report on Britain's drug laws produced for the Police Foundation, chaired by Dame Ruth Runciman, in 2000.

It is unlikely, however, that David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, will back the change. A spokesman for the Home Office said: "He cannot see a time when the laws on ecstasy could be relaxed."

The committee's report will, however, support a suggestion by Mr Blunkett that cannabis be downgraded from a class B to class C drug, making possession a non-arrestable offence.

Bongme

[Guest 123456]

A member of the committee, however, defended the proposal. The MP, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "The police must concentrate on the drugs that do the most serious harm such as heroin and cocaine. Seizing this drug and cracking down on the dealers is the most important job that we can do.

What a very sensible statement, and hardly very controversial nowadays – so how comes this MP hasn’t the ‘balls’ to put their name to it?

[Mr_Friendly]

they're scared, politicians are all scared of being "soft on crime". whatever the fuck that means i dont know. so despite most knowing ganja isn't that dangerous no one's brave enough to say so because all the ignorant right wing prohibitionists will leap on it as a sign of beign "soft on crime" or "soft on drugs". no one seems to realise we've been hard on drugs for years and it isn't bloody working but that's politicians for you......