Pubdate: Thu, 22 Sep 2005
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2005 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Toby Sterling, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

REPORTER PLANS TO USE HEROIN ON TV SHOW

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A field reporter for a new Dutch television 
talk show plans to use heroin and other illegal drugs on the air 
during the weekly program on issues that concern young people, 
producers said Wednesday.

The announcement of "Shoot Up and Swallow," scheduled to premiere 
Oct. 10, sparked an outcry. Even in the liberal Netherlands, where 
marijuana is sold and used openly, the proposed drug use by reporter 
Filemon Wesselink is illegal.

"This is dangerous and it sets a bad example," said Pieter Heerma, 
spokesman for the governing center-right Christian Democrat party. 
"We're going to ask the justice minister for his view on what the law 
says about this, and his view on the dangers and risks involved."

Justice Ministry spokesman Ivo Hommes said it was not immediately 
clear whether Wesselink could be prosecuted. Possession of any amount 
of heroin is illegal, but in practice police usually do not arrest 
anyone with less than a half-gram of the highly addictive narcotic.

"The actual taking of drugs is a health problem, not a criminal act, 
though it's obviously hard to take drugs without possessing them 
first," Hommes said. "In any case, it's not something we endorse, and 
doing it on television is undesirable."

The show's in-studio host, Sophie Hilbrand, will interview guests 
about drug use and abuse, while Wesselink appears in segments taped 
in the field as he experiments with drugs and liquor.

For one episode, Wesselink, 26, plans to smoke heroin, said Ingrid 
Timmer, spokeswoman for the show's producer, BNN. 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.

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

Drug Use By Nation

The Netherlands is known for its lenient marijuana policy, under 
which the sale and use of the drug in small quantities are not 
prosecuted even though technically illegal. Other drugs, including 
heroin, LSD, cocaine and Ecstasy, are outlawed, and dealers are 
prosecuted. The legal age for consumption of alcohol and tobacco is 16.

According to the Trimbos Institute, a Dutch group that monitors 
international drug use, the Dutch are about average among industrial nations.

It says 6 percent of the 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 with 1.3 percent in the United States, 
1.5. percent in Britain and 0.3 percent in France. Comparable data 
for heroin were not available.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman