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Coinciding with Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week, Current TV launch the Wasted season, a frank exposé exploring the way drugs and alcohol are used and abused by young people today. A seven day programming feature offering compelling and personal insights into these taboo topics, the Wasted season sheds light on the diversity of opinions that still surround them. Premiering on Monday 23rd June, Wasted takes an explicit and gritty look at the UK’s prolific drug scene and drinking culture, from the manufacturing process right through to the extremes of addiction. Hosted by home grown Current TV talent Graeme Smith, the season screens every evening from 9pm until Sunday 29th June.
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Brits are widely considered to be the biggest consumers of illegal drugs in Europe, and Wasted illustrates with honest and disturbing realism how the industry continues to flourish. While cocaine and heroine circulation is widely documented, Wasted goes behind the headlines to highlight the underground drug trends and types that have as yet evaded mainstream exposure, follows the addicts as they face their fears on banishing the vices that plague their lives, and displays the unexpected ingredients in the manufacturing process behind one of the most popular and glamorous drugs in syndication.
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In a unique series of short films made by real people, Current TV uncovers the ways and means by which we get Wasted.
Day 1 - Monday 23rd June - 9pm - Wasted: Introduction
Day 2 - Tuesday 24th June - 9pm - Wasted: Cannabis
Day 3 - Wednesday 25th June - 9pm - Wasted: Booze
Day 4 - Thursday 26th June - 9pm - Wasted: Meth and Heroin
Day 5 - Friday 27th June - 9pm - Wasted: Cocaine
Day 6 - Saturday 28th June - 9pm - Wasted: Pills and Other Highs
Day 7 - Sunday 29th June - 9pm - Wasted: Best of Wasted
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Ketamine is for Horses
http://current.com/items/88981439_ketamin_is_for_horses
It’s become resonant with popular drug culture, but shocking scenes ensue when frequent user Gruff is forced to witness the effects of Ketamine when used as an anaesthetic. Best known as an horse tranquilizer, utilized by vets in equine surgery, Gruff is startled to see a horse fall to the floor within seconds of the drug being administered. With the horse quickly descending into unconsciousness, the chilling realization dawns upon Gruff that the horse has been injected with less than half of his regular evening dosage. Will the harrowing experience be a strong enough deterrent to put a halt to Gruff’s escalating habit?
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No Laughing Matter
http://current.com/items/85327561_no_laughing_matter
In an astonishing and revealing investigative feature, Ben Cato Clough reveals the rapid rise in popularity of the ‘festival drug’, Laughing Gas. In one afternoon, Ben follows a dealer as he shifts over 650 canisters of the potentially oxygen starving substance, all as a means of funding his own student loan. With each hit, inhaled through a balloon, lasting 30 seconds, the potential repercussions are ignored by the dealer as he gets ‘high on his own supply’ consuming almost 30-40 balloons in a day. Consultant anesthetist Dr. Keith Myerson meanwhile speaks about the side effects associated with recreational usage…
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Legally High
http://current.com/items/88974601_legal_high_street
Exploring the legal drugs people are turning to that produce highs to rival their legislated counterparts, two volunteers subject themselves to a trial and error sample of two of the drug market’s readily available alternatives. The first, Salvia Divonorum (head candy), induces a high adrenalin rush and leaves its volunteer without sleep for 42 hours. The other, BZP (Bensylpiperazine), primarily used as an anti - parasitic for farm animals, sends its sampler into a deep slumber for 17 hours. While it becomes apparent legal action needs to intervene, could this merely cause abusers to move onto the next unclassified but potentially lethal drug dosage?
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My Drunken Shame
It’s that god awful feeling of forgetfulness, the morning after the night before. How would you react if faced with watching back the time line of a casual drunken night out? With booze levels soaring and binge drinking a popular topic for newspaper outcry, film maker Tristan Anderson recruits an ordinary volunteer, Matt Greenwich, to film for an evening. Whilst Matt protests to merely regarding drink as a tool for fun and relaxation, he is left confused and concerned upon revisiting his reckless behaviour and uncharacteristic actions the following morning. Aside from verbally bashing people in the street, he’s cheating on his girlfriend and urinating on a train home. It’s unlikely he’ll forget this night on the tiles in a hurry…
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Deadly Club Drug
http://current.com/items/88894054_playing_with_fire
The stand in for ecstasy on the gay clubbing scene, GHB’s fatal ramifications are exposed in this film commissioned by the Metropolitan police. Going behind the scenes at popular London hot spot Fire, this film highlights the potency of the liquid that’s already claimed five victims in the past year. Causing muscle spasms, unconsciousness, and occasionally inducing comas and leading to respiratory arrests, the class C drug’s damaging consequences have resulted in Fire installing a permanent medical room. Speaking to the friend of an overdose victim, previous users and bouncers from Fire, this hard-hitting documentary sheds new light on the dark undertones of GHB…
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Tripping in Amsterdam
http://current.com/items/88930549_sara_s_house_in_production
It might be more commonly associated with drug excursions, but to weed dependent Simon Wan, a ‘trip’ in Amsterdam has a whole new meaning. He’s off to undergo a radical and potentially pioneering form of alternative drug therapy, Iboga, as a means of curing his compulsions. Originally used by West African tribes in religious ceremonies and initiations, Iboga is now an unlicensed medication with a remedy so powerful it is said to combat drug addiction and alleviate withdrawal symptoms. After undergoing a hallucinogenic trance lasting thirty hours, Simon awakes with renewed hope of battling his demons - but upon his return to Britain, can he resist the urges he’s gone on the trip of a lifetime to escape…
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Making Cocaine
http://current.com/items/76392562_making_cocaine
In another compelling investigation from Vanguard Journalist Laura Ling, the production techniques behind glamour drug cocaine are unraveled. Laura heads to Bogota in Colombia to discover the shocking manufacturing process behind the drug best associated with the rich and famous. With ingredients that include ammonia, concrete dust and petroleum, it’s far from the clean cut its users are expecting…
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