New Scientist magazine have called for a ‘rational debate about the true damage caused by illegal drugs’ following the mainstream media panic which greeted comments by drugs expert Professor David Nutt that ecstasy is less dangerous than horse riding. The hugely respected scientific journal made its plea in an editorial headlined ‘Drugs drive politicians out of their minds’ and presented a hypothesis comparing ecstasy risks with peanuts. “Say you have to decide whether to give a stranger a peanut or ecstasy. Which is safest? Ecstasy, of course,” the New Scientist said. “You should give them ecstasy, of course,” the magazine repeated. “A much larger percentage of people suffer a fatal acute reaction to peanuts than to MDMA.”

Latex organisation International Rubber Research & Development Board (IRRDB) published a report on the estimated 1-2% of people who suffer dangerous allergies to all sorts of natural and synthetic substances, several years ago and confirmed that peanuts are unusually lethal. “A young Scottish athlete died because he ingested a very small quantity of peanuts in a chicken sandwich. He made a mistake in not reading the contents of his sandwich, and although extremely fit (in an athletic sense) he died very quickly,” IRRDB noted.

In another alarming drug report, news portal ThisIsSomerset.com reported that growing numbers of young people are using ketamine because it’s cheaper than going to the cinema, prompting a bloodcurdling warning from local drug worker Ellie Foster. “They still say that ketamine is not physically addictive, but we think otherwise. As a drug it can have horrific health implications,” she warned. “We have recently seen 16 and 17-year-olds who will have to wear catheters for the rest of their lives because of abusing the drug. It erodes a hole in the bladder over a very short space of time – as little as six months using the drug.”