'Prohibition doesn't work'

Conor McNicholas is the 28-year-old editor of Muzik, a dance music magazine which reflects the views of thousands of young people by championing a more liberal policy towards ecstasy.

He said: "One of the things that is starting to happen now is that middle England, which was always immensely opposed to any relaxation of the drugs laws, is starting to realise that much of the old rhetoric about drugs is simply not true and that the current legislation is failing.

"The New Scientist recently published a piece dismissing research which suggested that ecstasy had long term psychological effects, and young people are exposed to regular drug users who have not suffered massive adverse reactions to occasional recreational drug use.

"Criminalising young people for drug use is immensely divisive. It means that often their only experience of authority is when they are trying to avoid police. They feel alienated from the government and it is no coincidence that young people are not voting, they do not feel that the government represents them.

"The law is actually the problem here, not the chemicals. At long last people are genuinely seeing that there needs to be a radical new approach to drugs policy and the select committee's findings are the first moves towards common sense here.

"Prohibition doesn't work. It never has worked and it never will work, and the sooner that we all wake up to that the sooner we can start dealing with the real problems.

"Relaxing the law will not encourage more people to take drugs."