Blunkett rejects Ecstasy reforms

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The Times

May 22, 2002

By Richard Ford, Home Correspondent

MPs who called for Ecstasy to be downgraded after the most comprehensive examination of Britain’s drug laws for 30 years were immediately rebuffed last night when David Blunkett insisted that it must remain a Class A drug.

A Commons inquiry had said that the drug taken by millions of clubbers each weekend should be grouped alongside amphetamines, rather than with cocaine and heroin. But the Home Secretary swiftly dismissed the call, saying: “Reclassification of Ecstasy is not on the Government’s agenda. Ecstasy can, and does, kill unpredictably and there is no such thing as a safe dose.”

The recommendation that Ecstasy be downgraded came from the Home Affairs Select Committee, which concluded that for many young people drug-taking was a passing phase that caused them no long-term harm. But it ruled out the legalisation of drugs.

It did propose controversial pilot projects in which heroin users could inject illegal drugs in “shooting galleries” where they would use clean needles and be encouraged to seek treatment. But Mr Blunkett said that while wishing an extension of prescribing heroin, there were no plans for shooting galleries.

The MPs also want pilot projects in which heroin would be prescribed to chronic addicts in an attempt to undermine the criminal market. And they back Mr Blunkett’s plan to make possession of cannabis a non-arrestable offence. That will come into force this summer.

While ruling out legalisation of drugs as a “step into the unknown”, the cross-party committee report acknowledges that those those favouring such a move were “sensible and thoughtful people”.

It also points the way for future changes by urging ministers to initiate a United Nations debate over the possibility of legalisation and regulation of the global drugs problem. “It may well be that a future generation will take a different view. Drugs policy should not be set in stone,” the report says.

Despite advice to avoid drugs, the report says that young people will continue to use them. “In most cases this is a passing phase which they will grow out of and, while such use should never be condoned, it rarely results in any long-term harm.”

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