Canadian health official: Ecstasy is safe to take

The chief health officer of British Columbia said today that ecstasy, or MDMA, is safe for consumption and may not have negative long-term health effects.

HOWEVER - the official, Dr. Perry Kendall, who gave interviews to several Canadian media outlets, wants to be clear about one thing: There is a big difference between pure ecstasy and the stuff that gets cut with other chemicals and makes up the vast majority of what's sold on the street.

"Unless you are getting it from a psychiatrist in a legitimate clinical trial, at the present time, you can't guarantee what's in it, how much there is, or its safety, so I would say, as we have said in the past: Don't take it," Kendall told CBC News.

As you might have inferred, ecstasy is indeed being given to volunteers in clinical settings. For that matter, so is ketamine, a club drug also known as "Special K" that's shown promise in treating severe depression, as NPR's Jon Hamilton has reported.

Canada has long had a more lenient attitude toward drugs. Vancouver's city council is currently debating marijuana decriminalization; advocates for decriminalization say the illegal drug trade fuels violence in the city.

Kendall told media outlets that if ecstasy were legalized, it would also take control out of the hands of criminals and give the government the chance to regulate the trade.

Other physicians are exploring the use of MDMA for conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder.

More at NPR