BRITISH DRUGS HEAD APOLOGIZES OVER ECSTASY DANGER QUIP

The head of Britain's narcotics advisory board has apologized after saying
the drug ecstasy was less dangerous than horse riding, the government said
yesterday.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said David Nutt's remarks in a scientific
journal sent the wrong message to young people about the dangers of drugs.

"I've told him that I was surprised and in fact profoundly disappointed by
the article reported," she told legislators in the House of Commons.

"Professor Nutt apologized to me for his comments and I've asked him to,
as well, apologize to the families of the victims of ecstasy."

Mr. Nutt, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London,
is the chairman of the government's Advisory Committee on the Misuse of
Drugs.

The committee is due to report tomorrow on a possible downgrade of ecstasy
from the top of Britain's three-category classification.

Mr. Nutt wrote in the Journal of Psychopharmacology that 10 people in
Britain died each year from horse riding -- or "equasy" as he called it --
and that it was associated with more than 100 road traffic accidents
annually.

"Based on these harms, it seems likely that the ACMD would recommend
control (for equasy) under the Misuse of Drugs Act perhaps as a Class A
drug given it appears more harmful than ecstasy," he said.

Mr. Nutt said ecstasy was proportionately less dangerous, causing acute
harm only in one in every 10,000 cases, compared to one in 350 cases for
horse riding.

He said it was inconsistent to allow harmful sports while banning
relatively less harmful drugs.