DRUG ADVISER DISMISSES ECSTASY RISK

Taking Ecstasy is no worse than riding a horse, the Government's top drug
adviser has claimed.

Writing in a medical journal, Professor David Nutt said taking the drug
was no more dangerous than what he called "equasy", or people's addiction
to horse riding.

He is the chairman of the Home Office's Advisory Council on the Misuse of
Drugs (ACMD).

The organisation is expected next week to recommend that Ecstasy is
downgraded from class A to the less dangerous class B classification.
Ministers have outlined their opposition to such a move.

Prof Nutt's article in the latest edition of the Journal of
Psychopharmacology is entitled "Equasy -- An overlooked addiction with
implications for the current debate on drug harms".

He writes: "The point was to get people to understand that drug harm can
be equal to harms in other parts of life. There is not much difference
between horse riding and Ecstasy."

The professor said equasy - short for equine addiction syndrome - caused
more than 100 deaths a year.

He adds: "This attitude raises the critical question of why society
tolerates - indeed encourages - certain forms of potentially harmful
behaviour but not others such as drug use."

Ecstasy use is linked to about 30 deaths a year, up from 10 a year in the
early 1990s. Fatalities are caused by massive organ failure from
overheating or the effects of drinking too much water.

The ACMD has distanced itself from Prof Nutt's comments. A spokesman for
the body said: "The recent article by Professor David Nutt was done in
respect of his academic work and not as chair of the ACMD."