Dr Paul Quigley, an emergency medicine specialist and clinical toxicologist at Wellington Hospital, says the legalisation of pure MDMA - the main ingredient in recreational drug ecstasy, which has euphoric effects - should be considered to protect users from other, more dangerous substances. He said MDMA had been around for about 30 years and was a prescription medicine used in the 1970s for psychiatric purposes - so it had been clinically tested on people. (See also: Should pure ‘ecstasy’ be regulated? – Expert reaction)