The drug Ecstasy is increasingly being taken in powder form because users believe it is purer than tablets. Drug experts meeting yesterday highlighted the growing availability of the powder and gave warning that people buying the substance often had no idea what it contained.

They also heard evidence indicating the huge demand for Ecstasy in Britain. An estimated 60 million tablets are on the streets each year but police and Revenue & Customs seize only about 10 per cent of the total distributed.

It is the growing popularity of the powder form, however, that is causing concern to medical practitioners. Hospitals in London and elsewhere in the country are reporting an increase in admissions of drug users who have overdosed on MDMA, the main ingredient of Ecstasy, after buying what they believed was cocaine.

David Nutt, Professor of Psychopharmacology at Bristol University, said: “If you are buying a white powder from someone, how do you know if you are getting MDMA, methamphetamine or cocaine? If you are not sure what you are taking, it is potentially very dangerous.”

Professor Nutt was speaking after a London doctor told a meeting of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, called to review the classification of Ecstasy, that he was seeing more people who had taken the powder form of the drug. Professor Nutt takes over next month as chairman of the council, the Government’s official advisory body on drugs.

Paul Dargan, clinical director of the poisons unit at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital in South London, said that more people were being treated after being poisoned by MDMA powder that they had mistaken for cocaine. “We see a lot of patients who have taken powder they think was cocaine but was actually Ecstasy,” he told the council.

The drug is sold in grams of powder that is snorted or dissolved in liquid. Some users will dip a wet finger into the powder and ingest orally.

One reason for the growing popularity of powder is that buyers believe it to be purer than the tablet form.

The council was told that the MDMA content of tablets had fallen from 100 milligrams per tablet to about 40 milligrams. At the same time the price of a tablet had fallen from £5 in 2003 to £2.30 and even lower. Ecstasy powder sells for an average of £38 a gram compared with £43 for a gram of cocaine. Almost 30 per cent of all Ecstasy found on the streets is in powder form.

The council is reviewing the current classification of Ecstasy as a Class A drug. It will make a recommendation to the Government early next year, but the Home Office has already made clear that it has no intention of downgrading the drug to Class B.

A huge illegal industry has developed around the drug, council members meeting in Victoria, Central London, were told. This ranged from large-scale producers operating factories making millions of tablets with good quality controls, to illicit kitchen chemists run by one or two people who gained customers via the internet, said Ric Treble, of LGC Forensics.

Senior police officers have urged the advisory council not to downgrade Ecstasy. A submission from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo)said that such a move would send an “unfortunate message” to the public.

Tim Hollis, Chief Constable of Humberside and lead officer on drugs for Acpo, confirmed that the association did not support a change.

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