RESEARCH SUPPORTS MOVES TO DOWNGRADE ECSTASY

RESEARCH carried out among drug users in the west of Scotland has backed
the controversial view of English police chiefs that ecstasy should be
downgraded.

The in-depth study was carried out throughout the 1990s and the results
have just been published. Interviews with more than 200 people from Glasgow
and surrounding areas formed the basis of the research.

One of the co-authors, Professor Jason Ditton, director of the Scottish
Centre for Criminology, said the research proved that ecstasy users were
"just normal people" who should not be criminalised for their behaviour.

That view was put forward by senior Metropolitan Police officers last week.
Deputy assistant commissioner Andy Hayman told the Commons home affairs
select committee that ecstasy should be re-classified from a Class A to a
Class B drug, with reduced penalties, if there were good medical or
scientific reasons for doing so.

Commander Brian Paddick said arresting people for possession of ecstasy was
a "waste of valuable resources" and not a high priority.

Professor Ditton endorsed the police officers' comments, adding that it was
"absurd for ecstasy ever to be a Class A drug". He said: "Previously, all
drug research has been based on the fact that there is something different
about the users. The central thing we found is that ecstasy users are just
normal people. This is a normal activity for these people and they
shouldn't be persecuted for what they do."

He estimated that around one million tablets are consumed in the UK every
weekend.

However, senior police officers in Scotland yesterday urged a more cautious
approach to the issue. Jim Orr, the director of the Scottish Drug
Enforcement Agency, warned that ecstasy remained a dangerous drug.

Jack Urquhart, general secretary of the Association of Scottish Police
Superintendents, said the debate over ecstasy should be differentiated from
that surrounding cannabis, which has some medicinal properties. He said the
status of ecstasy should be considered with more caution.