I pop this under 'General' as it may want to / need to go adrift of the original questions .... If folks find it worthy of debate ??

Firstly, this is the newspaper 'thread' on this particular statement - which he recently made ...
*Click Here ..

This particular (UK Police) 'North Wales Chief Constable' is prone to making such statements and constantly dubbed as either irresponsible, useless or indeed dangerous by various press releases ....

*1. Do you agree with him on this (or his many other issues - if known to you)?

*2. Do you have such 'people in power' where you live? making such statements?

*3. And finally, should he be sacked for making such statements - in his position?

This was an extremely stupid and irresponsible comment. Ecstasy is taken to upset the chemical balance of the brain deliberately.It has caused many deaths all over the world.

This police officer is sending out a very dangerous message to both young and old, and in my opinion should be sacked .

I dont think Leah Betts parents would agree with this so called police officer or anyone who has lost a loved one to this drug. Ecstasy is a killer no two ways about it. Most people know that it causes severe dehydration and dramatic increase in body temp and thats just for starters.

Of course he should be sacked not that i have ever heard of him (glad i havent) but to make moronic statements like this is a complete disgrace.

Dont you just love these looneys that are in charge.

has he ever seen an ecstasy induced schitsophrenia it is not very nice to watch sombody whom in the late 80ies abusesd them that much that even on the hottest day he dresses like an ninja and wears heavy black clothing and stands on one leg for 9hours at a time and has little moments of sanity a bet he hasent a have and not to far away from my home infact my nextdoor neighbour's boy david who was a very educated boy now his brain has frazzeled asprin and ecstasy asprin has its dangers also but thats not the issue the officers heid is full of mince grrrr a wonder if hes ever taken it and the now man is in sheltered accomodation the officer should go into a rehab for ecstasy and tell leigh betts parents that he should not be sacked but sent on a course for all drugs and taken into the locked wards yes they do still exist just not talked about as freely and maybe the murder ratio would fall if they opened up all the mental hospitals and watch the numbers go down fact not fiction

Leah Betts died on this day in 1995




as for aspirin

Overdose death rate cut



May 2001.

Ecstacy, Aspirin and paracetemol are all drugs and each has its side effects.

A patently obvious assertion which neglects to take into account the respective dangers of the starkly different production and distribution mechanisms for legal and illegal drugs.

If Leah betts had not taken the ecstasy then she would never have drank the 7 litres of water and she would be alive today, so your telling me ecstasy never contributed to her death in any way?

here are some more facts and a related conclusion.



Review of deaths related to Ecstacy .....

Deaths related to aspirin in one year - 60.

Does Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom have a point?

Exactly Angela, maybe Dexter is advocating tighter controls on the availability of water as a means of cutting drug deaths!

a think leah betts dad whom was a copper would probably want to smash his face in the copper that said aboot aspirin and lets face it everything has a side effect but a prescription drug is ok if used properly with reading instructions not thinking( well the doc said 2 will make me better but some people read in their own heads well if 2 makes me better 4 will make me even better )


and that is how drug abuse etc can happen sorry went off topic but people do do that and the death of taking 4 paracetamol could kill you it takes 4days to kill you and by then its to late as the organs pack up and death will happen anyway

I think that was a disgusting , and uneducated remark to be made by an officer. It could frighten people who have to take aspirin for heart problems . I know for a fact if my wee daughter had seen that comment , we would have difficulty getting her to take her aspirin .

There was a toy removed from the market recently called Bindees , it was little beads and if swallowed they gave the same effects as ecstacy, pretty dire for a child i would say, never mind an adult.

With regard to DSC's initial post, I've seen a number of figures quoted in various sources which would seem to indicate that ecstasy [statistically speaking] is indeed no more likely to harm you than aspirin.

Whether that's true [or not] I believe the thrust of this police officer's comments was aimed at telling us that a substantial percentage of his available resources is consumed in trying to prevent one section of the population from selling a product that another section of the population wants to buy, for recreational purposes.

Should he be sacked for pointing this out ?. I would say no.

" The risk of using ecstasy varies between one death in 2000 first time users to one death in 50 000 first time users. "

What kind of useless statistic is this ?

Any comparison between Ecstasy and aspirin users would have to take into account the number of people using each drug.

And what are the comparative figures for second-time users ?

One point not mentioned so far is that the sale and posession of Ecstasy is illegal - the Chief Constable should be sacked for condoning law-breaking

"Condoning law breaking"
Absolutely agree - for that alone, he should be sacked.

For me, this guy is a (supposed) figurehead at the top of the law enforcing side of UK society.
He should NOT be advocating the police run up the 'white flag' on any illegal issue because HE has come up with some figures (always debatable and disputable) from wherever and whatever so-called-expert source(s).

This is the same man, who's force (sadly) has a very low record of *crime detection, followed by 'massive' fines of other offenders (not the least of which is (so called) traffic speeders).

*As for your comment Oor Wullie, I guess he 'may' have been putting that point across, but that to me reads also, that we (they) cannot detect more crime, so lets legalise most of it and have a better detection rate? I mean, a thief steals / breaks into someone's home / commits robbery and there is always someone willing to buy that gear off him: supply and demand. (I accept you are not advocating that route) but Legalise it / run up the white flag?
I don't think so....

Are we alone (UK) in such people running the show?

I marvel at the high horses people get on regarding ecstasy. The only real problem with it, is that it's illegal. It's not ecstasy - or MDMA - itself that kills people, it's the additives to it and whatnot that do that, and even still, for the millions of pills that have been going down people's necks every weekend since it became freely available, there's been very few deaths on account of it. Yet, so long as it's illegal, then these issues cannot be addressed.

The way of it seems to be that it is absolutely fine to go out and use booze as your choice of recreational drug - cause that's exactly what it is, yet woe betide if your recreational drug of choice happens to be ecstasy. Is there really any difference between using either to achieve what suits you best? I don't think so. Just that booze is legal, ecstasy is not.

DSC, having read your posts, I get the impression that you may (or not) have taken the substance mentioned, as you seem willing to defend its misuse. You have no doubt done a great deal of research into these drugs, and will have the qualifications through long years of study at Uni etc, in which to back up the claims made by others, and enables you to peddle your pro drugs stance

If not, then I think you, and Fidget, should refrain from making such silly comments, as this will only encourage those who lack the mental strength, of which there is not much required, in saying "NO" to the dealers, who care little for their wellbeing.

The difference between illegal drugs and the drinks trade is that the production of one is tightly controlled, with all ingredients known and shown to the consumer, something that I don't think happens when drugs are produced by the criminal fraternity.

As for the chief constable who made these remarks, he should be shown the door, with a loss of some of his pension rights. You can bet if it was an ordinary polis that made this remark, he would no doubt be severely disciplined and fined

Have left this for a while and am still wondering if it is just the UK where these 'chief police officers' live and spout their stuff?

Any polis chiefs in the big wide world out there with such views?? or is the UK really on its own with these folks??

all the deaths from drinking too much water are the result of scaremongering like this in schools. if children were taught the truth, that ecstasy is 1000 times safer than say alcohol, I bet the number of deaths would drop substancialy.

Wouldn't that be reason enough to bring illegal drugs under the "Control" umbrella thus removing them from the criminal fraternity, reducing risk to consumer, cost of policing, cost of NHS care where neccessary and adding to the tax-collectors coffers?