Drugs head apologises over ecstasy danger quip

By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - The head of the narcotics advisory board has apologised after saying the drug ecstasy was less dangerous than horse riding, the government said on Monday.

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 MPs in the Commons.

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

Nutt, Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, is the chair of the government's Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

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

Nutt wrote in the Journal of Psychopharmacology that 10 people in Britain died a 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.