ECSTASY: HOW DOES IT RATE?

Just how bad a drug is Ecstasy? Naomi Larkin and Tony Wall find
opinion divided.

Promises of higher penalties for Ecstasy demonstrate inconsistencies
in drug laws and cheap electioneering, claim opponents of the move.

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said this week the Government would push
Parliament to reclassify Ecstasy from being a class-B drug to a
class-A. This would put it in the same category as heroin, cocaine and
LSD. It would also drive the maximum penalty for importing or
supplying Ecstasy from 14 years' imprisonment to life.

But criminologist Dr Greg Newbold believes sensational reports about
the effects of certain drugs have created an irrational fear that had
led to many being wrongly classified under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
The Canterbury University lecturer sees the same thing happening with
Ecstasy and is adamant it should not be reclassified.

"This whole thing in my view is driven by emotionalism, ignorance
about the drug and cheap electioneering."

Dr Newbold said he knew of no research which showed that Ecstasy was
anywhere near as dangerous as heroin or more dangerous than morphine
and opium. The Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 was ridiculous, he said.

Heroin was in class A but, unaccountably, morphine and opium, almost
identical to heroin, were class-B drugs.

But Auckland drug squad head Detective Senior Sergeant Colin McMurtrie
said yesterday that heroin was used for "nothing other than a drug of
abuse" compared with morphine, which also had a medicinal use.

"If you weigh up what is really, really serious as an offence, then
heroin is considered more serious than morphine."

It was likely that amphetamines, of which Ecstasy was a derivative,
were originally placed in a lower category because previously people
knew little about them and they had only recently been abused on a
large scale, he said. Before Ecstasy could be reclassified it needed
to be defined. "There are a variety of different categories of Ecstasy
which all fall under the colloquial heading of Ecstasy." The drug MDA
was already a class-A drug, MDMA was class B and MDEA was class C -
yet all three were Ecstasy.

The Director of Public Health, Dr Gillian Durham, said yesterday that
the problem had been recognised and Ecstasy would be defined at a
meeting today of the group responsible for developing the national
drug policy.

"It is a complex definitional issue, which we realise we have to get a
solution for which is quite clear to people," she said.

Detective Senior Sergeant McMurtrie said that under the Misuse of
Drugs Act, police had different search powers for Ecstasy and speed
(class B) compared with other drugs. If police believed a person
possessed class-A drugs, or cannabis (class C), then they could search
premises, vehicles and people without a search warrant. However, they
had to obtain a search warrant for Ecstasy and speed.

A spokeswoman for New Scotland Yard police in London said Ecstasy was
a class-A drug in England.

The head of Melbourne's drug squad, Detective Chief Inspector John
McKoy, said heroin, cocaine, LSD, Ecstasy and cannabis were clumped
together there under the classification of "drugs of dependency."
Penalties for trafficking and using were meted out according to the
amount. A person's previous convictions, drug dependency and
motivation for selling were also taken into account.

Ecstasy has traditionally been associated with the club and dance
scene. The drug claimed its first fatality in New Zealand last October
with the death of Aucklander Ngaire O'Neill. The 27-year-old Devonport
Telecom worker died after taking Ecstasy at a dance party in
Karangahape Rd.

Last week, five South Auckland secondary school girls were taken to
Middlemore Hospital after drinking a soft-drink laced with Ecstasy.
One was placed in intensive care.

Dr Newbold said Ngaire O'Neill's death and the Mangere College girls'
overdose had created a panic about Ecstasy. "We've had a completely
irrational response to the fact that one person has died from Ecstasy
in this country."

Labour leader Helen Clark said Mrs Shipley's announcement was more of
a public relations move for the Government than a serious attempt to
deal with the country's growing drug problem.

But the Minister of Health, Wyatt Creech, said the needs of young
people were driving the decision to reclassify Ecstasy as a class A
drug.

"We have a chance to act now to stop Ecstasy from becoming an
established part of New Zealand culture. We are not going to sit on
our hands and let young people get trapped into the drug scene as is
happening overseas."

Key points: Some claim that many drugs are wrongly classified.
Ecstasy is treated seriously in England and Australia.
Reclassifying Ecstasy would enable police to search for it without a
warrant. Ecstasy will be defined at a meeting today of the groups
responsible for developing the National Drug Policy.