GOVERNMENT ADVISORS COULD CALL FOR ECSTASY TO BE DOWNGRADED

The Government's official drug advisors could call for Ecstasy to be
downgraded as early as today.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs will meet to discuss
moving the potentially deadly drug from Class A to Class B or even
lower.

The new chairman of the body, Professor David Nutt, has previously
said publicly it "probably shouldn't be" in the top band alongside the
likes of cocaine and heroin.

Such a move would see dealers face 14 years instead of life in prison
and users would see the maximum penalty for possession drop from seven
to five years.

But an expert in psychology will demand Mr Nutt drop any proposal to
downgrade and attack him for comparing its effects with those of alcohol.

Professor Andy Parrott, from Swansea University, will warn it is far
more powerful and potentially damaging and should remain Class A.

Shadow Home Secretary, Dominic Grieve, said: "Drugs wreck lives and
destroy communities. The harm they do to the health of our young
people and the amount of crime they create is immense. We see no
evidence to declassify this drug."

Ecstasy has been blamed for 500 deaths in the last 15 years and is
taken by an estimated 500,000 people every week.

The ACMD is currently undertaking a review of MDMA - or Ecstasy - and
will discuss further evidence in a public meeting today.

But the door has been left open for members to vote on a possible
reclassification during a closed session of the meeting this afternoon.

It will be Prof Nutt's first public session after taking over as
chairman of the advisory body earlier this month.

In 2006, he said LSD and Ecstasy "probably shouldn't be class A'' and
has publicly suggested that the legal penalties for possessing Ecstasy
and LSD have not stopped people using them.

He has previously questioned why ecstasy is illegal when alcohol
isn't, claiming it is more harmful.

But Prof Parrott will tell the committee the drug is as powerful, if
not more, than cocaine, and the problems of alcohol will not be solved
by adding another damaging "happy pill".

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "Ecstasy can and does kill
unpredictably; there is no such thing as a "safe dose". The Government
firmly believes that ecstasy should remain a Class A drug.

"The Home Office has not requested ACMD to review the classification
of ecstasy (MDMA)."