A doctor wants to see MDMA legalised and claims the powerful drug is safer than alcohol.

The psychoactive drug, usually referred to as Ecstasy, induces powerful euphoric effects. It became popular in the 1980s as an energy-boosting party drug.

Paul Quigley, an A & E specialist at Wellington Hospital's emergency department, believes making the pure form of ecstasy available would reduce the impact of unregulated, unsafe alternatives.

"It's not associated with the risk of cancer, it's not got the same social disruption that alcohol's been associated with. It doesn't have any immediate health effects in terms of your liver, and so on."

"Let's run it through the tests," he said. "If it passes, should we consider putting something safer on the street to get rid of these other harmful agents?"

Quigley believes the 'War on Drugs' for more than 30 years has "made almost no headway whatsoever."

"All we see is the lack of control we have through not being able to keep up with these modern drugs at all."

Executive Director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation Ross Bell believes the issue Quigley is raising is a fraught argument, but legalisation would mean regulation.

"At the moment, MDMA is scheduled in our Misuse of Drugs Act so what he's saying legally can't happen right now...That might mean at some point looking at regulating substances that are lower risk."

"I think it is a debate worth having."

Bell advocates an early warning system which could inform drug users of the dangers of what they were taking.