High Society

British people use Nitrous oxide more than any other country in the world, and it recently became the second-most popular drug in the UK. The media became obsessed with the drug after a handful of deaths associated with it – often over-inflating its dangers. The government’s response has been to include it in the Psychoactive Substances Act. This is a law that came about in response to the popularity of legal highs, putting a ban on the sale of anything that can change your mental state (except alcohol, cigarettes, and coffee). Now, selling nitrous carries a sentence of up to seven years. We set out to discover what happens when you ban a substance overnight, and how dealers will continue to supply Britain with its best-loved gas.

GHB can make you happy and horny with no comedown but a millilitre too much can put you in a coma, or be fatal. And whilst you’re more likely to have heard about GHB in the context of the chemsex scene, or its abuse as a date rape drug, there’s a lack of reporting about its prevalence in the dance music scene. We went out to investigate just how widespread GHB abuse has become, and what we uncovered is alarming.

The UK is experiencing a psychedelic renaissance.To find out why, we go on a cosmic journey to a shamanic magic mushroom ceremony and meet a man who never stopped tripping.

What happens when neighboring countries have completely different drug policies? While Sweden rigidly sticks to its zero tolerance laws, liberal Denmark introduced drug consumption rooms (DCRs) in 2012, with special areas surrounding them where you won’t get arrested for drug possession if it’s for personal use.

Why are more and more young men using Viagra? Obi, a 24-year-old man who would like to stop relying on Viagra, explores what’s behind this new boner renaissance and whether young men like him really should be taking erectile dysfunction medication.

Drugs have never been more marketed than they are now. The most recent European Drug Report refers to this as an “uberisation” of the drug market, with it now being easier to order a gram of cocaine than a pizza. But with this ease of access and glossy marketing has come a dark outcome; a sharp uptake in drug use in children, as young as 10. The world has been hit by a wave of deaths of children who have taken Class A drugs such as ecstasy, and many have been found to have bought those drugs on Instagram and Snapchat. VICE’s Tir Dhondy investigates how easy it really is to pick up, and whether it’s possible to regulate this digital wild west.

Paracelsus in Switzerland is the most expensive rehab in the world, serving a clientele of royalty, politicians, oligarchs, business tycoons and A-list celebrities.