Drugged on NGC
Two-Night Event, Drugged Premieres
Sunday, January 16, 2011 at 8 PM & 9 PM ET/PT
And Monday, January 17, 2011, at 9 PM ET/PT
Getting “high” is an unquenchable national desire — one that impacts the human body of the one-time recreational user and severe addict alike. From the first sniff, puff, inhalation or swallow, our bodies work to process the substances taken in. Now, National Geographic Channel (NGC) takes you beneath the skin to reveal how our bodies react to three common drugs: marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy.
From the producers of NGC’s critically acclaimed Inside the Living Body special, Drugged — a two-night event premiering Sunday, January 16, 2011, at 8 p.m. ET/PT — shows what the human body undergoes when drugs are introduced to its organs. Cutting-edge imaging techniques delve deep inside the lungs, heart, blood vessels and brain to give a unique inside-out perspective on its heart-racing, palm sweating and mind warping effects.
Find out why so-called stoners get the “munchies” and bloodshot red eyes, what makes cocaine users feel like superman — full of euphoria and self assurance — and why ecstasy triggers socially friendly feelings. And see how the physiology behind these effects opens the door to pioneering experiments that may change our understanding and treatments of these drugs.
Premiere episodes include:
DRUGGED: High on Marijuana
Sunday, January 16, 2011, at 8 PM ET/PT
Most medicines that doctors prescribe, there’s a lot of side effects, there’s a lot of risk and you have to balance out the risk benefit ratio,
but with Cannabis it’s very much non-toxic. — Dr. Julie Holland, Author, The Pot Book
In the last year, 28 million Americans have rolled a joint, smoked a pipe, sparked up a bong or eaten a pot brownie. Now, follow an entire marijuana high in an adult from start to finish, beginning with the inhalation of cannabis smoke. Using vivid CGI, see how the chemicals slip through a stoned subject’s membranes lining the lungs and into the bloodstream, then on to the heart, up the spine and into the brain. Find out why users get red eyes and the so-called munchies, and explore the difference in the body when cannabis is eaten rather than smoked. We’ll see what role genetics might play in a person’s response to cannabis, take a look at the mysteries of why a high sometimes turns to a low and learn more from the forefront of current marijuana research.
DRUGGED: High on Cocaine
Sunday, January 16, 2011, at 9 PM ET/PT
The more cocaine that gets in the brain, the more dopamine is released,
the more pleasure, the more rush, the more high.
— Dr. Scott Lane, Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Cocaine, a powerful and at times a destructive drug, is glamorized by models, rock stars and celebrities. In this episode, CGI zooms inside the human body from the moment a line of the white powder is inhaled and flies up the nose at up to 100 mph. Learn about the feel-good role of dopamine and what makes users want more. Then, cutting-edge imaging shows the dangers of cocaine abuse from the inside, such as increased heart attacks and the destruction of nasal tissue. Finally, see how a unique vaccine is being designed to block the effects of a cocaine high, offering hope for addicts.
DRUGGED: High on Ecstasy
Monday, January 17, 2011, at 9 PM ET/PT
Ecstasy causes people to embrace one another… it is a social bonding feeling.
It creates intimacy and that’s why people use it, is to have this powerful emotional connection with one another. — Dr. Stacy Hail, Toxicologist and ER specialist
Over the past 30 years, ecstasy has become a top club drug. We follow two ecstasy users as they get high, journeying inside their bodies using imaging techniques to explore how the drug creates its highs and its lows. With access to pioneering research at the University of Chicago, we find out how ecstasy creates empathy in the user and how this could one day lead to the drug being used as a life saving medicine. While ecstasy is the perfect high for some, there are those for whom ecstasy is agony: we’ll follow a young woman whose use of the drug landed her in the psychiatric ward and a mother whose 16-year-old son died after taking ecstasy.
Drugged is produced by Pioneer Productions for National Geographic Channels. For Pioneer, producer/director is Tom Pearson; series producer is Martin Mortimore; and executive producer is Yavar Abbas. For the National Geographic Channel, executive producer is Allan Butler; senior vice president of production is Michael Cascio; and executive vice president of content is Steve Burns.
For more information, visit natgeotv.com.
