YouTube CLASS A DRUG PUSHERS
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 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, warning that ‘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 €55,000-a-year funding from the Dutch education ministry;
Presenters play rock-paper-scissors to decide who will take ecstasy.
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 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’ before snorting it with a goldcoloured 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 first-aider is on set.
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.’
In May 2015 Ana Hick, 18, from Dalkey, Co Dublin died after she was rushed to hospital just days before her 19th birthday. She had taken ecstasy at a nightclub earlier in the night.
The latest figures from the National Drug-Related Deaths Index (NDRDI) show that some 354 people died of ‘poisoning’ due to drug use in Ireland in 2014.
Heroin-related deaths increased to 90 in 2014 compared to 86 in 2013. Cocaine-related deaths increased by 25% from 32 in 2013 to 40 in 2014.
Elizabeth Burton-Phillips, of charity DrugFAM, said: ‘This makes me very angry as it is a lesson on how to use 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.’
YouTube said: ‘Drugslab is a channel from a respected national public broadcaster 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.’
‘People may conceivably die after copying this’ ‘All it takes is one bad dose to be lethal’ ‘It is a lesson on how to use drugs’