Ecstasy safer than aspirin: Top UK cop

[faustus]

http://news.smh.com.au/ecstasy-safer-than-...80102-1jwx.html

A senior British police chief has come under attack for claiming the illicit drug ecstasy is safer to take than aspirin.

North Wales police chief constable Richard Brunstrom has sparked outrage by making the controversial claim and calling for the legalisation of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, within a decade.

Brunstrom says he believes ecstasy is a "remarkably safe substance" and that people who raise concerns about the dangers of taking it were "scaremongering".

"It's far safer than aspirin," he told BBC radio.

"It's far less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol which are freely available.

"There is a lot of scaremongering, rumour-mongering around ecstasy in particular. It isn't borne out by the evidence."

Brunstrom's comments have sparked calls from anti-drugs campaigners for his resignation.

Ecstasy has been blamed for causing more than 200 deaths in Britain since 1996.

[obtuse]

right on!!!

Ecstasy has been blamed for causing more than 200 deaths in Britain since 1996.

mmm, and how many lives can alcohol and tobacco be blamed for.

Good on him, hope he doesn't quit.

[fringle]

holy fuck awsome. surprise coming from someone in his position. If hes thought about the consequenses and lashback hell get from saying this, he must feel deeply about speaking out.

"hope he doesn't quit."

-yeah, it'd be good to see someone in that position take a strong, lasting stance on these things.

[mu!]

Yeah right on! Cocktails of random drugs are safe as fuck, w000t!

Ecstacy = ???

MDMA = MDMA

[fringle]

Yeah right on! Cocktails of random drugs are safe as fuck, w000t!

Ecstacy = ???

MDMA = MDMA

good point. That didnt register when i read it. He should say mdma instead of ecstasy and stop promoting whats called "ecstacy", under mdmas good reputation. Although, the word "ecstacy" may be more closely associated with mdma in the UK, and not used to identify any random pill as it is here?????.

[Fenris]

I wonder if MDMA was actually responsible for any of those 200 deaths.

[incognito]

asprin dont make me feel like necking myself for days after ive taken it,

i just dont have the seratonin to spare!

id neva take another ecstacy pill no matter the sales pitch.

[ayjay101]

I wonder how many deaths MDMA would be responsible for if it were legal - when the community at large could take as much as they want, as often as they want, as is now the case with alcahol and tobacco.

We just don't know how much damage MDMA could do in the hands of so many irresponsible users.

[dc]

Jono how about if i help you shelve it ?

[The Dude]

Jono how about if i help you shelve it ?

this joke has run long enough!

actually apparently that's the best thing to do with pills. Anything else would be considered a waste by the proper hardcore drug takers, dunno if im hardcore enough for that. Nah screw wasting anything just IV the fucker!!

or maoi up and hope you don't go hypertensive. Also consider that maoi's are serotonin inhibitors, does that mean you'd have potentiated mdma serotonin rush that is retained longer in the brain due to serotonin inhibition?

and only have to deal with tiny doses of lethal drug cocktails, probably best not to mess with maoi and 'ecstacy' mdma on the other hand, I'm gonna look up some bioassays...

[chilli]

this joke has run long enough!

actually apparently that's the best thing to do with pills. Anything else would be considered a waste by the proper hardcore drug takers, dunno if im hardcore enough for that. Nah screw wasting anything just IV the fucker!!

or maoi up and hope you don't go hypertensive. Also consider that maoi's are serotonin inhibitors, does that mean you'd have potentiated mdma serotonin rush that is retained longer in the brain due to serotonin inhibition?

and only have to deal with tiny doses of lethal drug cocktails, probably best not to mess with maoi and 'ecstacy' mdma on the other hand, I'm gonna look up some bioassays...

Haha, I lost it in the supermarket the other day and was immediately reminded of you filthbots when I saw a big sign that read:

"BASIC SHELVING - LOW PRICES"

What is basic about it? No lubrication? Perhaps it's meant to imply "no funny business," which would make sense with the low prices.

[incognito]

actually apparently that's the best thing to do with pills. Anything else would be considered a waste by the proper hardcore drug takers, dunno if im hardcore enough for that. Nah screw wasting anything just IV the fucker!!

no shit duder!!(pardon the pun teehee) i have never joked about shelving.

was the only way me and my circle of friends at the time used to take em back in the ol' home and gas days!!! (ahh to be a young tiga again! so much devious fun!! hee hee) seriously once u did it u wouldnt turn bak to swallowing them.

1000 times better than ingesting them orally, comes on faster and stronger and lasts alot longer.

saying that id never ,ever, ever take another 'ecstacy' pill. i took way to many as t'were, to the point where i seriously was considering topping myself on my last ever comedown from an 'ecstacy pill', and ive neva had that feeling before, and took a couple of yearsto getover it. looking bak id say i had whattrefers to 'serotonin syndrome' yuk. god knows what was in em, we used to get em hell cheap, like 25 buks each, and used to shelve two and swallow 2 each night of the weekend for around 3 years!!!!

[ThunderIdeal]

that sounds like it was a serious habit jono, on par with serious alcoholism. i wouldn't call $25 hell cheap, at $100 per day that's a pretty serious pocket-drainer. i'm curious if you can explain (since this thread is about ecstacy) what is going through your head when you are taking four pills a day, every day, for several years. i'm honestly just asking because regardless of any peer reinforcement i'd be thinking 'today i feel like TOTAL SHIT! more pills would help, but maybe less pills would help more'. i'm glad you're on top of it now but it's also saddening because now you won't allow yourself to EVER enjoy mdma.

i love the fact that this cop said what he said, but i won't be the first person to say this - drug legalisation MUST go hand in hand with good education. as much as i want drugs legalised in order to improve our society, i think if everybody went wild on them our society would fall to bits worse than it is already.

[ThunderIdeal]

OH, each night of weekend... i read 'each night of the week'. okay that's a slightly different story

[ThunderIdeal]

double penetration

Edited January 6, 2008 by ThunderIdeal

[chilli]

More:

Drugs 'legal in 10 years' claim

The legalisation of all drugs is "inevitable", according to the Chief Constable of North Wales.

Richard Brunstrom, who has campaigned for drugs like heroin to be made legal, says he believes the move towards decriminalisation is "10 years away".

The chief constable said repealing the Misuse of Drugs Act would destroy a major source of organised crime.

He also said he thinks ecstasy is safer than aspirin. Drugs charity DrugScope said legalisation is "unlikely".

Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, the controversial chief constable acknowledged that his was a minority view, but he said attitudes were changing.

"I'm certainly out of step with the majority of senior police officers, but not all of them," he said.

"But in terms of society, public attitudes change quite rapidly and you need look no further than drinking and driving: in the space of my lifetime drinking and driving has gone from being socially acceptable, almost the norm, to being socially unacceptable.

"I think that the legalisation and subsequent regulation of proscribed drugs is now inevitable, and I think it's ten years away, not ten months away."

He went on: "It has already happened in for instance Portugal, a full member of the European Union, decriminalised under the existing international treaties.

"The same sort of thing is being talked about across the world."

He said levels of drug misuse across the country might be falling because of better treatment programmes, but the problem was still acute.

'Prohibition doesn't work'

"We're still causing something like £20bn worth of damage to our society every year," he said.

"More than half of all recorded crime is caused by people feeding a drugs habit.

"The government wants evidence-based policy; the evidence is very clear that prohibition doesn't work, it can't work, an enforcement-led strategy is making things worse, not better."

Mr Brunstrom was invited onto Radio 4 by three members of Dyfed-Powys Police, who were guest editing the New Year's Day's edition of the programme.

He also said there was a lot of "scaremongering" and "rumour-mongering" about drugs.

Battle

"Ecstasy is a remarkably safe substance - it's far safer than aspirin," he said.

"If you look at the government's own research into deaths you'll find that ecstasy, by comparison to many other substances - legal and illegal - it is comparably a safe substance."

A spokesman for DrugScope, the UK's leading independent centre of expertise on drugs, said they believe the legalisation of drugs within the next decade is "unlikely".

"Neither the current government nor the leaders of the other parties show any inclination towards drug law reform in the near future," he said.

"And in fact this government has already suggested its desire and its looking closely at reclassifying cannabis from class C to B."

In October, Mr Brunstrom said drugs laws were out of date and that the police are engaged in a battle which they cannot win.

He said he is now campaigning for drugs to be legalised, and for the class A, B and C system to be scrapped.

The police chief's suggestions were criticised by some politicians.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/wales/7166748.stm

I found that last line hilarious.