Ecstasy - No worse than horse riding?

[English Noodles]

Taking ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse, a top Government drug adviser has said.



Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Home Office's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, said in a medical journal that taking the drug was no more harmful than an addiction to riding.

The council 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 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 added: "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 around 30 deaths a year, up from ten a year in the early 1990s. Fatalities are caused by massive organ failure from overheating or the effects of drinking too much water.

David Raynes, of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said: "He is entitled to his personal opinion, but if his personal view conflicts so very strongly with his public duties, it would be honourable to consider his position. If he does not, the Home Secretary should do it for him."

Ecstasy 'no worse than horse riding' - Yahoo! News UK

[BigRed]

I agree with him, most deaths are from massive overdosing and mixing with other drinks and alcohol. Ecstacy related deaths are currently running at around 30 per annum in the UK compared to around 5 per annum for peanut allergy.

[kingwilly]

true or not, bit of a silly thing to say really.

[britmaveric]

Turns brain to mush over time, I'm afraid.

[melvbot]

Turns brain to mush over time, I'm afraid.

Don't be afraid. Do you have any proof of your brain/mush theory or is it just speculation?

[britmaveric]

Ecstasy Effects::

[Butterfly]

maybe in terms of fatality, it's less, like maybe sticking some gerbil in your ass would be less than that,

but it still fucks your brain up, so not sure if it's indeed less dangerous

[DrivingForce]

Prof Nutt's article in Journal of Psychopharmacology

classic!! you just can't make this stuff up!! Can you?? a doctor named Nutt? writing in a journal of Psychopharmacology?? Noodles are you taking the piss you piss taker you??

[melvbot]

maybe in terms of fatality, it's less, like maybe sticking some gerbil in your ass would be less than that,

but it still fucks your brain up, so not sure if it's indeed less dangerous

Alcohol fucks up your liver along with plenty of other organs, is addictive to some people and is the second biggest cause of cancer of the throat after smoking. Taking any form of "drug" over a period of time will have detrimental health effects.

[Texpat]

Lil dope never hurt nobody.

[Spin]

Taking ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse

I once rode a bird from Redditch whilst twatted on E. I think this doctor is pretty much spot on.

[Texpat]

I'm starting to understand the TD propensity to dislike America -- a land that respects law and labels a criminal a criminal.

Buncha fuckin dopers.

Lovely, brilliant.

Stay out you goddamn smack heads.

Yeah, I'll bet that just pisses you right off....

No, you don't have to make excuses, just stay out....

[melvbot]

I'm starting to understand the TD propensity to dislike America -- a land that respects law and labels a criminal a criminal.

Is that some sort of joke? America respects laws?

[Spin]

I'm starting to understand the TD propensity to dislike America

You're obsessed with this shit now. Let it go for focks sake!

[melvbot]

I'm starting to understand the TD propensity to dislike America

You're obsessed with this shit now. Let it go for focks sake!

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe its because some of the Americans keep going on about how everyone hates they Yooessofaay that it keeps the fire burning.

[Texpat]

Crackhead, dopehead, smackeskanks... need not apply.

Whine from afar.

Who's next?

[filch]

We are all going to die. The way you go is up to you.

I am a smoker, drinker, stressed out employee of a multinational.

I don't fancy my chances, but fuck it, when I go I will go.

C'est la vie!

[NickA]

I'm starting to understand the TD propensity to dislike America

Ah, well, it's nice to see you're learning something in your time here.

[britmaveric]

Tex- well on the scale of hatred I think yanks are rather low, compared to Aussie(s), frenchies and of course the arab brethern.

[Mr Earl]

^^ I'm going to sue, I want a refund, fuck you!

Agnes where did you put the large caliber ammunition?

[sabang]

Crackhead, dopehead, smackeskanks... need not apply. Whine from afar. Who's next?

I don't know, because I don't know of one country that does not have problems with drug abuse.

It is hard to make a blanket statement about the USA, because the practise of enforcement varies from state to state- but based on visual and experiential evidence, I'd say the drug problem in the USA is at least as prevalent as in other western countries. So, all of the 'zero tolerance' rhetoric of the DEA and other agencies has not changed anything except putting record numbers of young people in jail.


As for horseriding being more dangerous than taking E, that is quite likely the case- horse riding can be a dangerous sport (ask Superman). But it is a pretty indirect analogy comparing a recreational drug to a sport that carries risks.

[baldrick]

I'm starting to understand the TD propensity to dislike America -- a land that respects law and labels a criminal a criminal.

Lil freedom never hurt nobody.

[kingwilly]

America -- a land that respects law

[The Gentleman Scamp]

I didn't know drinking too much water can kill you - I guess we learn something new everyday.

Water intoxication - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Both ecstasy and horse riding are dangerous and appeal to people who want others to think they are cool.

I once took half an E and it made me smash up my flat in Hemel Hempstead and put on my girlfriends clothes.

[kingwilly]

I once took half an E and it made me smash up my flat in Hemel Hempstead and put on my girlfriends clothes.

no it didnt.

it was probably a sugar pill.

you just thought you were being rock n roll