Marijuana, cocaine, MDMA, LSD... Have you ever thought or experienced the effect of this drugs over your body? The crew from Drugslab yes. The Dutch Youtube channel was released in September, 2016, and has almost 300.000 subscribers. Weekly uploaded, Drugslab not only shows what many different substances (many of them illegal) do, also explaining scientifically how they affect concentration skills, memory, and behaviour.
According to the Youtube channel description, the goal of it is to provide to the audience safe methods of use, safe doses, the risks and useful insights on what to do (or not) when high on drugs.
The crew is described as composed of experienced "epicurans" and the acts are performed by professionals or under professional supervision. The show is produced by the public TV channel BNN-VARA.
Controversies
However, could it be a way to encourage people to try some of the drugs? According to the description of the channel, its idea is not to incentivate the use of psychoactive substances but to present scientifically their effects. The BNN-VARA strongly warns to the risks of trying to reproduce the performances of the show.
In an interview for BBC Brazil, Ferry Goossens, head of the Dutch Trimbos Instituut, which helps to treat people with drugs dependency problems, says that the Youtube channel "is not a good idea".
He claims that people who are not interested in using drugs or that use so-called "light drugs" could feel attracted to try substances that have a more intense effect over the mind and body.
But is it necessarily bad?
The Netherlands is well known for its flexible drug policies. Although drugs such as marijuana and psychedelic truffles being legal, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), only 16% of the "young adults" (15-34 years) used cannabis in the last 12 months.
This is less than the usage in France (22%), Denmark (18%) and Czech Republic (24%). In the UK, these rates go up as 12%. And cities such as London and Antwer have higher number of heavy-drugs consumers than Amsterdam.
The BNN-VARA emphasises that the use of drugs is not just "cool" but that it needs to be researched and treated with responsibility.
One of their motto is "let they do it so you don't have to". To the channel, the program might be a good way to avoid accidents and drugs misusage problems. Besides many substances presented on the show are illegal, the BNN-VARA does not disclose their sources.
