RICHARD BRUNSTROM SHOULD STICK TO HIS REAL JOB

The next time you go into Boots, try this. Go up to the pharmacy
counter and say, "I'd like a dozen Ecstasy tablets, please".

When the assistant gives you a startled look, inform them, "It's
safer than aspirin".

If they still look unconvinced, tell them it's not you saying this,
but the Chief Constable of North Wales.

There, they'll be sure to hand them over, won't they?

We employ police offers to perform a pretty precise role. They are
paid to prevent crime through their presence on the streets. Should a
crime occur, we task them with catching the culprit and assembling
enough evidence to secure a conviction.

What being a police officer does not include is making pronouncements
on the right or wrong of law.

Police officers who have gone in for that kind of thing, Brian
Paddick comes to mind, almost invariably get themselves into hot water.

The latest to wade, waist deep, into media frenzy is North Wales
Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, pictured. He told BBC Radio Four's
Today programme, "Ecstasy is a remarkably safe substance. It's far
safer than aspirin".

Those who favour drug legalisation often come out with wild
statements such as this. Another prize one I've heard is you are
you're more likely to be knocked down by a bus than die of Ecstasy.
With this logic, you better not take an aspirin and step off a
pavement or you're a gonner.

The truth is, people die from legal drugs all the time. But then, go
into a hospital for an ingrown toe nail and you risk popping your
clogs with MRSA these days.

The difference, of course, between Ecstasy and aspirin, as with all
street versus legal drugs, is that with the one licensed for sale,
you sort of know what you're getting.

Yes, many legal drugs have side effects, not least cigarettes and
alcohol, neither of which would probably be allowed to be sold in
corner shops if they were launched now.

Certain drug companies have not always been entirely open about the
dangers of the drugs they produce and sell for large profits. Many
addicts are addicted, not to illegal substances but to legal ones,
which, once prescribed, become impossible to get off.

All that said, the families of the 48 people who died in 2004 from
Ecstasy would surely disagree with Mr Brunstrom. They are proof that
Ecstasy is not harmless. But even those families who have not lost
someone as a result of drug use, who have instead seen the person
they love stay alive but disappear, to be replaced by a stranger
whose emotions are blunted or non-existent, would also have reason to
disagree.

In the ongoing debate on legalisation of drugs, argument usually
centres on two issues. First, whether drugs such as cocaine, heroin
or cannabis damage their users and second, whether legalising them
would stop addicts breaking into cars, burgling houses, and
generally making the rest of our lives a misery.

While I'm all for being able to walk out of the house in the morning
without looking down to see if there is glass on the pavement by my
battered old Golf, this is not a good enough reason to ignore the
other damage that drugs do, not to the user who, frankly, made their
choice, but to those around them.

And you don't have to be a crack addict to cause the pain. A
"recreational" cocaine habit can be just as devastating if you see it
up close.