FURY OVER REPORT'S CALL TO RELAX ECSTASY LAWs

A report by the Police Foundation is expected to recommend easing the
law on Ecstasy. But anti-drug campaigners last night vowed to fight any
move to have
it reclassified. It's currently a Class A drug, like heroin. The report,
due out next
month, is believed to favour it becoming a Class-B drug, like cannabis.

The recommendation follows a two-year inquiry chaired by Lady
Runciman, the former head of the Government's advisory council on the
misuse of drugs.

The Police Foundation, an independent body whose president is Prince
Charles, researches and debates policing policy. It said that early
reports of its recommendations were pure speculation.

But anti-drugs groups quickly moved to slap down any talk of softening
the approach to the drug which has claimed the lives of several
British teenagers in recent years.

A Scottish Police Federation spokesman said any such reclassification
would be "utter nonsense".

He said: "When you consider that the federation doesn't support the
decriminalisation of cannabis, then you will understand how we feel
about this recommendation."

Alistair Ramsay, Director of Scotland Against Drugs, said
re-classification was a non-starter.

He said: "Those who have experienced the health consequences of taking
it, or the parents of those who have died after taking it, will have
very firm views on whether it should be reclassified."

Jan Betts, mother of Leah, the teenager who died after taking an
Ecstasy tablet at her 18th birthday party in 1995, said she was
"appalled" at the report.

She said: "It has come out of ignorance. We are talking about a drug
which was banned from medical use because of its side effects - quite
apart from the deaths it has caused."

She added: "There isn't a youngster in the land who can't tell a tale
of how one of their mates or someone in their family has had their
life ruined by a synthetic drug.

"I cannot believe all this money has been wasted."

She said she hoped Prince Charles would be concerned at what the
report recommended.

Reclassifying Ecstasy as a Class B drug would mean lower sentences for
those caught in possession.

Details of the report leaked the a day after Leah's father hit out at
a Scots drugs expert who said her case only got attention because of
her looks and middle class background.

Rowdy Yates made his comments at a lecture at Stirling
University.