Toffs expelled for making Ecstasy from Net recipe

Four pupils at £16,000-a-year private school Glenalmond College have been expelled after making the dance drug Ecstasy from instructions found on the Internet.

The boys, all aged 17, produced the drug MDMA using the school's equipment but were then caught by staff having taken their finished product, The Times reports. Their behaviour was said to be unusual.

They were taken to Perth Royal Infirmary, where they were held overnight, but it would seem that despite the obvious dangers of home producing a powerful drug from some recipe found on the Internet, they managed not to permanently damage themselves. The boys have not commented on the experience.

The registrar for the school, Jeremy Poulter, told The Times: "Teenage boys will be tempted to experiment and it is a cause of grave concern that such information should be peddled on the Net... We have a clear policy on the taking of drugs and none of the boys will be returning."

It's not hard to find a recipe for making Ecstasy on the Net, and it's not illegal to post it either. But you would have to be a foolish 17-year-old boy to trust it.

The Times also quotes a spokesman for Scotland Against Drugs as saying he was "amazed" the pupils managed to get hold of some amphetamine aka speed, needed to make the esctasy. ®