Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial: Pioneering science — or a cynical new low from Channel 4?

By Zoe Brennan

PUBLISHED: 18:12 EST, 21 September 2012 | UPDATED: 06:36 EST, 22 September 2012

Programme-makers claim that the controversial series, Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial, presented by newsreader Jon Snow and Dr Christian Jessen is an attempt to tell the truth about the effects of recreational drug

The blonde woman is given a tablet to swallow, before being prepared for an MRI scan in a vast, space-age machine. Doctors study graphic images of her brain, looking for unusual activity.

Asked how she feels, she replies: Light. Its pleasant. Theres an airiness and openness to the senses.

A slight heightening of sensory perception, which I liked. The visual feeling is vivid.The colours are lush, which I enjoy. I might be a bit more alert to sounds. I feel physically relaxed and that is a pleasure.

I can tell there is a little buzz going on. Long may it last.This is the novelist Lionel Shriver, who volunteered to take the pure form of the class-A drug Ecstasy for a controversial new Channel 4 documentary to be screened in the coming week.

Shriver, who wrote the bestseller We Need To Talk About Kevin, is one of eight volunteers including a former MP, the actor Keith Allen (father of pop star Lily Allen), an ex-soldier and a female vicar taking part in the programme.

The group many of whom look as if they might be more comfortable with a nice cup of tea have all consented to take 83mg of MDMA, the active ingredient in the notorious rave drug Ecstasy, on television.

While the drug-taking element of the series has already been filmed at Londons Imperial College in scientific conditions which comply with strict Home Office rules on drug trials including the use of illegal ones much of the two-part series will go out live.

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Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial: Pioneering science -- or a cynical new low from Channel 4?