In his latest bizarre proclamation, he insisted that the drug – which claims almost 50 lives a year – was a "remarkably safe substance".

And he went on to dismiss what he called "scaremongering" over the dangers, while predicting that all drugs would be legalised within ten years.

The comments from the gaffe-prone head of the North Wales force infuriated the families of youngsters who died after taking ecstasy.

Des Delaney, whose 18-year-old daughter Siobhan was killed by a single pill at a nightclub two years ago, said Mr Brunstrom "should go and stand by my daughter’s grave every week and see how he feels".
Campaign groups said that 53-year-old Mr Brunstrom’s increasingly controversial public comments on drugs were no longer "compatible with his position" as a police chief.

His comments came during an interview yesterday on Radio 4’s Today programme, in which he repeated his calls for the legalisation of outlawed drugs including heroin and cocaine.

Challenged over the well-documented dangers of taking drugs such as ecstasy, he said: "Actually the reverse is the case. Ecstasy is a remarkably safe substance. It’s far safer than aspirin."

He added: "There’s a lot of scaremongering and rumour-mongering around ecstasy in particular. It isn’t borne out by the evidence."

Mr Brunstrom claimed that "Government research" showed ecstasy was safer than many other substances, including tobacco and alcohol.