MAKE ECSTASY A SOFT DRUG, SAY PRINCE'S TEAM

A THINK-TANK backed by Prince Charles was criticised yesterday after it said
Ecstasy should be treated as a soft drug.

The Police Foundation, which includes former Home Office mandarins and
senior police officers, believes the law should class the drug in the same
way as cannabis instead of grouping it alongside heroin.

They are said to be "appalled that teenagers have been sent to prison for
supplying a small group of friends with a single tablet of Ecstasy each".

Charles is president of the foundation, which looks at the operation of the
criminal law and is partly funded by his Prince's Trust.

It is also expected to call for cannabis users to be freed from the threat
of jail, with anyone caught with less than two grammes of the drug let off
with a caution.

Phyllis Woodlock, whose son Andrew became Scotland's youngest Ecstasy victim
when he died aged 13, said any move to ease drug sentences would lead to
more deaths.

She added: "They would not say Ecstasy is relatively harmless if their son
or daughter had died from it.

"Anyone who wants to legalise drugs will have to accept the consequences,
which are that people will die."

The foundation has spent two and a half years looking at the drugs problem
and is expected to report its findings next month.

Its director, Dr Barrie Irving, refused to comment on leaked reports of its
recommendations.

But they are understood to suggest that the current Misuse of Drugs Act,
which applies throughout the UK, is woefully out of date.

While they are not expected to recommend legalising cannabis, they are
likely to urge the abolition of jail terms, which can be as long as seven
years, for people caught in possession of it.

They will suggest fines and other non-custodial measures should be used.

Their ideas on Ecstasy will be even more controversial. They are expected to
say that, with 500,000 people estimated to be using it every weekend, it
should be viewed in the same way as cannabis and should not attract the same
heavy penalties that possession of heroin does.

Government sources said there was next to no chance of the Foundation's
recommendations being adopted. PM Tony Blair and Home Secretary Jack Straw
are known to be against any liberalisation of the law on cannabis, let alone
any stronger drugs.

Straw has rejected the idea of making cannabis legal for medical use and
refuses to consider relaxing the law for other users.