Episodes
Science of Drugs with Richard Roxburgh Premieres Tues 16 Aug on ABC TV
Presented by Richard Roxburgh this four-part series is drug science without the politics. Featuring fascinating interviews with the top international researchers, this is an entertaining, irreverent and in-depth examination of our most common licit and illicit substances.
Episode one, Legal and Lethal, unpacks the science of our two most deadly and commonly used legal drugs – tobacco and alcohol. Together they take around ten million lives each year. But smoking wasn’t always as deadly; as science historian Professor Robert Proctor reveals, the modern cigarette has a fascinating history – which is key to understanding how our nicotine habit transformed into such a lethal addiction.
In the UK, government drug advisor Professor David Nutt was famously fired for claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol. In this episode we discover why he considers alcohol to be the most harmful drug in society today.
Production credit: Presented by Richard Roxburgh. Series Writer/Director: Anja Taylor. Executive Producers: Kate Pappas and Alan Erson. Produced by WildBear Entertainment in association with Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Head of Factual and Culture: Jennifer Collins. ABC Executive Producer: Leo Faber.
Airdate: Tuesday 16 August 2022 at 9.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iView.
Season 1 Episode 1