CLASS A DRUG PUSHERS
It beggars belief: a glamorous TV presenter bends down to snort cocaine and rave about its effects in free to view online ‘Drugslab’
Drug that fuelled a horrific attack is ‘magical’
YOUTUBE has been accused of glamorising drug abuse by screening a programme in which attractive young presenters take cocaine and LSD, then gleefully describe their mind-altering effects.
Hundreds of thousands of British teenagers watch the show, which also gives tips on drug-taking, including the advice that lines of cocaine should be snorted in 30-minute intervals.
After taking the date-rape drug GHB – often used by predators to spike drinks – the male and female presenters announce it has put them in the mood for sex. In another episode, a presenter, silhouetted behind a screen, performs a sex act while sniffing amyl nitrate and watching pornography.
Last night YouTube, owned by Google, which has been criticised for failing to clamp down on jihadi videos, was resisting demands to remove the programme.
Campaigners condemned the web giant as irresponsible and said the show encourages young people to experiment with potentially deadly substances. Tory MP Simon Hart, who sits on the Commons’ Digital and Culture Committee, called for the programme to be taken down.
He said: ‘People may conceivably die after doing what the people in these videos are doing.’
But YouTube insists the show has a ‘clear educational value’ and said it was ‘proud to be a place that people can visit to find information on a range of subjects’.
In the programme, made for YouTube by a Dutch broadcaster:
Viewers are advised how much ketamine, a horse tranquilliser, to take and are told: ‘If you don’t feel anything you can take some more after 15 minutes’;
A female presenter says after taking LSD: ‘It’s magical’;
Drugs are bought from dealers with £50,000-a-year funding from the Dutch education ministry;
Presenters play rock-paper-scissors to decide who will take ecstasy.
Outside of the Netherlands, Drugslab is most popular in Britain, where it has been viewed nearly three million times. Each show begins with the warning: ‘This is an educational show about the use and the effects of drugs. It is explicitly not the intention to encourage people to use drugs.’
Some of the videos are ‘agerestricted’. This is supposed to prevent under-18s from watching, but the makers admit that youngsters can access them by simply typing in a false date of birth when they register a YouTube account.
Every Friday, Dutch broadcaster BNNVARA uploads a new video of one of the three presenters – Nellie Benner, 30, Rens Polman, 25, and Bastiaan Rosman, 23 – taking drugs in a studio loosely resembling a science laboratory. One of them puts on a heart rate and body temperature monitor and proceeds to snort, smoke or swallow different drugs. Their ‘experiments’ are interspersed with playful repartee.
One Christmas-themed episode begins with Benner asking: ‘What do you associate with a white Christmas?’ She then answers ‘Cocaine’, before unwrapping a bag of white powder. Her co-host Polman says: ‘Cocaine makes you talkative, warm and energetic. A low dose can be sexually stimulating. You’re alert and full of adrenaline.’
Benner adds: ‘More confident and creative.’ Polman then prepares a line of cocaine for Benner, who smiles and says ‘all for science’
‘People may conceivably die after copying this’
before snorting it with a gold-coloured tube.
In the background a monitor shows her heart rate jumping from 67 to 115 beats per minute. Benner says she feels ‘more aggressive’ and would ‘enjoy a bit of fighting now’. Giggling, she then declares: ‘I would like to have sex now.’
After 40 minutes, they prepare another line and Polman tells viewers: ‘Of course, you won’t get addicted from using cocaine once.’
A test revealed the cocaine used was 73 per cent pure and, alarmingly, had been cut with Levamisole, a flesh-eating chemical.
Earlier this year, trainee nurse Penny Hargreaves, 21, died after a drug binge in which she snorted lines of cocaine without knowing it had been mixed with the deadly substance, used by vets to kill parasitic worms in horses and cows. But Polman tells viewers that 73 per cent purity is ‘good’. He suggests waiting 30 minutes before having another line. The next day Benner records a video in which she tells viewers: ‘I slept really well. I don’t feel weird or depressed.’ She adds: ‘It may give you more confidence, but you should get that out from yourself, not a drug.’
In the YouTube comments section, a viewer wrote: ‘It’s like a kids’ show that tells you how to take cocaine. Odd.’
In addition to advising on quantities to take, the presenters issue warnings about mixing drugs and warn viewers not to take them if they have a pre-existing medical condition. The drugs are tested by Holland’s Drugs Information Monitoring System and a firstaider is on set during filming.
Drugs claimed a record 3,744 lives in the UK last year – the total
‘All it takes is one bad dose to be lethal’
‘It’s no different from radicalising someone’
has been fuelled by a surge in overdoses of cocaine. The increasing purity of the Class A drug is believed to be behind the deaths of 371 users – a rise of 16 per cent. Possession of cocaine carries a maximum seven-year jail term.
In another episode, Polman ‘loses’ a game of rock-paper-scissors and takes an ecstasy tablet and is then filmed dancing around a studio.
In a separate film, Benner swallows half an ecstasy pill and spends the episode dancing to music in a tribal headdress. Afterwards she says: ‘I came down nice and easy.’
British youngsters are thought to be Europe’s biggest users of ecstasy and deaths related to the drug have soared in recent years. The drug has been linked to more than 200 deaths since 1996.
Yesterday the grandmother of Daniel Ferguson, 16, from Cheshire, who died earlier this year after taking a cocktail of cocaine, ecstasy and LSD, said the show ‘glamorises’ drug-taking.
Carole Ferguson said: ‘If the hosts look great and are having fun, then you can understand why other impressionable people would feel like it’s a good idea. Daniel took drugs because of peer pressure and you can see how these videos would encourage someone to try them out. Drugs affect everyone differently so just because the present- ers are OK it doesn’t mean everyone else will be. All it takes is one bad dose for it to be lethal.’
Last week a judge issued a warning over the country’s drug culture after jailing a young professional for a ferocious attack that left his girlfriend brain-damaged.
Design engineer Samuel Farley, 21, kicked and punched Esther Garrity 27 times when he became psychotic after taking LSD on a night out in Middlesbrough. In one video Benner takes LSD which she describes as ‘magical’. She says: ‘I have it under control, but I wouldn’t want it to be more intense than this.’ But then she says: ‘I’m tripping way too hard, I need to lie down.’
Benner is also filmed taking daterape drug GHB, which has become increasingly common on the clubbing scene over the past ten years, and can kill by causing cardiorespiratory arrest or choking when mixed with alcohol. But Benner says: ‘When it stopped working I felt great. I don’t feel like I used drugs yesterday.’ In another episode, Polman is given a dose of GHB. He then watches pornography on a laptop before telling Benner: ‘I really feel like having sex.’
Polman is also filmed sucking nitrous oxide from a balloon. The drug, known as hippy crack, killed eight people in the UK last year. He says: ‘You feel you’re losing consciousness, you drift off… It’s a bit like fainting.’ Benner, meanwhile, also tries the hallucinogenic Class A drug 2CB, described as a cross between ecstasy and LSD, and dances around the studio.
MP Mr Hart said: ‘To argue they are performing an educational purpose is utterly disingenuous.
‘People are beginning to wonder how serious online companies such as YouTube are about behaving responsibly instead of claiming it’s freedom of speech or whatever.’
Elizabeth Burton-Phillips, of charity DrugFAM, said: ‘This makes me very angry as it is a lesson on how to use drugs. It’s no different to radicalising someone except it’s not religion or politics – it’s drugs.’
Drugslab spokeswoman Maxime van de Groep said: ‘The show is very transparent – if the presenter has a good time on a drug they are honest about it and if they have a bad experience they will say that, too. The videos can seem very light and fun to watch but that’s because we want to appeal to youngsters.
‘We work with a mental health and addiction centre to make sure our drugs are tested and they will guide us in what we can do.’
YouTube said: ‘Drugslab is a channel from a respected national public broadcaster in the Netherlands and aims to educate around the safe use and dangers of drugs.
‘While YouTube has clear policies against content that encourages people to do dangerous or harmful things, we make exceptions for content with clear educational or documentary value.’