ADDICTS TAKING HEROIN, ECSTASY & LSD
her final hours in hospital to make others aware of the dangers.
Shakira – like most schoolchildren – was a keen viewer of Youtube.
Her sister Kayleigh said: “To the people posting these videos I would say: please, please stop.”
Yet users like Drew Gilchrist continue to post the shocking material.
In one drug-glorifying video he says: “Everything feels so good. The colours started changing slowly and stuff. It was really cool.”
When asked whether he thought it was appropriate to show potentially young users the content, he said: “Tutorials exist on the internet. Youtube is nothing special.”
Other videos on Youtube detail taking heroin and the best way to inject while one user takes hallucinogenic DMT while on a high dose of a LSD. They get around the content of their videos by claiming they are for information and harm reduction.
Safer Heroin Injecting, narrated by a British user named John Derricott, has had more than 300,000 views.
Another Brit, Anastasia May, discusses her first time taking LSD. She says: “I am not promoting or glorifying drugs in any way – I just thought it would make an entertaining life story for a story time video.”
Another British drug user, named Veeoneeye, reported his experience of taking LSD for two days at the Triplicity music festival in Wales. In one harrowing video he says he could envision himself killing his own dog after taking two tabs of acid on Valentine’s Day 2016.
Footage shows him screaming and incapacitated on the side of the road as he pleads for the hallucinations to stop. A Home Office spokesperson told us: “Anything that is illegal offline should be illegal online.”
But they still insisted it was the responsibility of internet companies to remove illegal content.
Shadow secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport Tom Watson said: “Google’s near-monopoly in many markets means that they feel they can ignore the concerns of consumers, competitors and even elected governments. We urge the Government to take action.”
Yasmin Batliwala of the charity WDP, which provides drug and alcohol treatment, said: “As there is no quality control on the content uploaded to a platform such as Youtube, inaccurate and potentially dangerous messages can be shared too easily.”