How to use illegal drugs: a TV show?

A field reporter for a new Dutch television talk show plans to use heroin and other illegal drugs on the air.

The show, "Shoot Up and Swallow," is legally possible because it is filmed in the Netherlands, where marijuana is sold and used openly. The legal age for consumption of alcohol and tobacco is 16. However, possession of any amount of heroin is illegal. But in practice, police usually do not arrest anyone with less than a half gram.

For one episode, the reporter plans to smoke heroin. For others, he plans to go on a drinking binge in a series of pubs and to take the hallucinogenic drug LSD on his couch under the supervision of his mother. This isn’t the first outrageous show on this TV station. One in past months included a segment on how to have sex in a nightclub.

"It's not our intention to create an outcry. We just want to talk about subjects that are part of young people's lives."

Some interesting facts about drug use around the world: 6 percent of Dutch have used marijuana recently, compared with 8 percent in the United States, 8 percent in Britain and 9 percent in France. For cocaine, it was 1.1 percent in Holland and rising quickly compared to 1.3 percent in the United States, 1.5. percent in Britain and 0.3 percent in France. Click here to read more.