Professor David Nutt said that having ecstasy as a class A drug was an "anomaly".
Nurses and pharmacists should be allowed to dish out free cocaine to drug abusers, advisors have told the Home Office.
The proposal was put forward at an open meeting of the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs by its chairman, Professor Sir Michael Rawlins.
Sir Michael has also confirmed that the Council is currently reviewing whether the killer drug, ecstasy, should be downgraded from a class A drug to class B.
Professor David Nutt is heading up that review. He has suggested that the grouping of ecstasy with heroin and other Class A drugs is an "anomaly".
In January 2004 the Government acted on advice from the council and downgraded cannabis from a class B drug to class C, a move now widely regarded as a disaster.
The advisory council is funded by the Home Office. In 2005-6 it received £165,000 of taxpayers' money.
While the Home Office said it would consider the advice of the council, it says it has no intention of reclassifying ecstasy or allowing nurses and pharmacists to prescribe cocaine to addicts.
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