Postcard Series: Drugs in the Media by Mallory Culbert

By Mallory Culbert

t th e he Me e M

a a iidd

ii n

Drugs

It’s May of 1977. Newsweek reports on a new, cosmopolitan social trend: “a little cocaine, like Dom Perignon and Beluga caviar, is now de rigueur at dinners... the user experiences a feeling of potency, of confidence, of energy.” Before, cocaine was “scary” to young, white americans. As of 1977, cocaine is sexy.

White girls do cocaine. Black girls do heroin. At least, that was what we were taught. Big whoop, people use drugs! But by teaching citizens to associate

Mexican

immigrants

and

“the

hippies

with

marijuana

and

blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those

communities

news.”

Boy,

did

… it

and

vilify

work.

them

night

Mainstream

after

news

night

on

almost

the

evening

always

bases

conversations about drugs on crime [7]. The Nixon Administration used the evening news to fire up a moral panic that depended on hysterical “societal

reactions

against

certain

drugs

and

drug

users”

[5].

Sensationalist media preys on our culture’s values, hopes, and fears to pull in the largest audience possible.

American mass media is made to entertain, not to inform. It’s news, not legal evidence. The news thrives on exaggerated scandals and drama to maximize

profits.

Forms

of

mass

communication

like

radio

and

TV

programs, newspapers, ad campaigns, and even streaming services like Netflix release information to the public all at once. With such a wide reach, whoever controls the media controls the culture.

Crime and drug media (like TV shows and news stories) are told from law enforcement’s

perspective.

We

are

taught

that

morally

good,

clean

people don’t use drugs. We are told scary stories about dealers in “The Ghetto”, told to “just say no.” We are shown scary photos of faceless “addicts.” We treat drug use as a crime because of a political agenda.

Instead

of

recognizing

real

harm,

the

news

industry

and

government

interests work together to represent drug use as a “social problem” to be exterminated.

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