A senior British police chief has come under attack for claiming the illicit drug ecstasy is safer to take than aspirin.
North Wales police chief constable Richard Brunstrom has sparked outrage by making the controversial claim and calling for the legalisation of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, within a decade.
Brunstrom says he believes ecstasy is a "remarkably safe substance" and that people who raise concerns about the dangers of taking it were "scaremongering".
"It's far safer than aspirin," he told BBC radio.
"It's far less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol which are freely available.
"There is a lot of scaremongering, rumour-mongering around ecstasy in particular. It isn't borne out by the evidence."
Brunstrom's comments have sparked calls from anti-drugs campaigners for his resignation.
Ecstasy has been blamed for causing more than 200 deaths in Britain since 1996.
AAP