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Biweekly Discussion - Drug Panics & Drug Conspiracy Theories

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Brian B.
Biweekly Discussion - Drug Panics & Drug Conspiracy Theories

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We're currently hosting our discussions at Café Walnut, near the corner of 7th & Walnut in Olde City, just across the street from Washington Square Park. The cafe's entrance is below street level down some stairs, which can be confusing if it's your first time. Our group meets in the large room upstairs.

Since we're using the cafe's space, they ask that each person attending the meetup at least purchase a drink or snack. Please don't bring any food or drinks from outside. If you're hungry enough to eat a meal, they have more substantial fare such as salads, soups & sandwiches which are pretty good and their prices are reasonable.

The cafe is fairly easy to get to if you're using public transit. With SEPTA, take the Market-Frankford Line & get off at the 5th Street Station (corner of 5th & Market), and walk 2 blocks south on 5th and then turn right on Walnut Street and walk 2 blocks west. With PATCO, just get off at the 9th-10th & Locust stop and walk 3 blocks east & 1 block north. For those who are driving, parking in the neighborhood can be tough to find. If you can't find a spot on the street, I'd suggest parking in the Washington Square parking deck at 249 S 6th Street which is just a half block away.

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DRUG PANICS & DRUG CONSPIRACY THEORIES:

UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES & OVERLAPS BETWEEN "DRUG PANICS" & "DRUG EPIDEMICS" AND BETWEEN "DRUG CONSPIRACY THEORIES" & THE REALITIES OF "DRUG TRAFFICKING"

INTRODUCTION:

Two meetups ago, we explored the concept of a "moral panic" - i.e. a type of social hysteria where an exaggerated fear spreads through society over a threat that's non-existent, relatively innocuous, or harmful but uncommon. We looked at how moral panics tend to revolve around "folk devils" - i.e. people who are perceived as outsiders & deviants and who are often blamed for crimes or other social problems. Moral panics over illegal drugs - a.k.a. "drug panics" - are not uncommon. There's numerous examples of scares over non-existent or apocryphal drugs such as "bananadine" in the 1960s (a supposed psychedelic made from banana peels) and "jenkem" in the 2000s (a supposed inhalant made from feces). There's also plenty of example of real but relatively innocuous drugs whose dangers were vastly exaggerated, such as marijuana which back in the 1930s was portrayed as a powerful drug that would turn normal people into murderous psychopaths, or more recently with the media scare over Salvia (a non-toxic & relatively rare hallucinogenic herb from Mexico) in the late 2000s.

However, in addition to panics over non-existent or relatively innocuous drugs, there's a grey area where "drug panics" can sometimes overlap with "drug epidemics" when the use of harmful street drugs is actually becoming more common among some segments of society. These instances might be referred to as "quasi-panics" since they're based on a real addiction problem but the media nevertheless hypes the danger & scapegoats marginalized groups, leading public fear to exceed the actual danger. This often results in angry citizens demanding a quick solution from legislators, who in turn pass draconian drug laws that often have unintended consequences.

In American history, these sorts of "quasi-panics" over drugs can be seen as far back as the late 19th century when the temperance movement sought to shift public opinion on alcohol and some doctors began to raise an alarm about opiate addiction. These panics did have a basis in fact - rates of alcohol consumption & alcoholism were much higher in the 19th century, and Americans had easy access to opium tinctures at local drugstores so that opiate addiction was becoming a real problem. However, the public campaign against alcohol tended to focus inordinately on immigrants, especially the Irish who were seen as "drunken brutes", and portrayed alcohol in a hyperbolic manner as "Demon Rum". Similarly, concerns about opium tended to focus on Chinese immigrants who were demonized with allegations they were corrupting Americans with their opium dens, and opium fears also intermingled with "white slavery" panic - i.e. the fear that virtuous white women were being lured into prostitution by evil opium peddlers.

Later drug panics in America have tended to share many of the elements of the late 19th-century alcohol & opium panics, such as:
(1) Double Standards for Drugs (similar to the "if-by-whiskey" fallacy) - a tendency to overlook prescription drug abuse among "respectable" members of middle-class society to focus on chemically-similar or identical street drugs used by the lower classes,
(2) Mistaken Notions of "Drug Pushers" - i.e. the mistaken belief that drugs are usually foisted upon unwilling or unwitting people,
(3) Double Standards for Addicts (a form of "ultimate attribution error") - i.e. poor people become addicts because they're immoral "junkies" & deserve to go to jail, but middle class people become addicts because they made a mistake or were lured into it & deserve our sympathy & help,
(4) Neophobia - any new drug, or even a new name for an old drug, tends to get an inordinate amount of media focus & fear-mongering even if it's uncommon or relatively harmless,
(5) Xenophobia - foreigners & immigrants often serve as "folk devils" in drug panics, being portrayed as smugglers who corrupt our nation with exotic drugs like opium & cocaine,
(6) "Crazed" Addicts - classist/racist fear-mongering about underclass males using drugs, going crazy & running amok; ties in with law enforcement theories about "excited delerium" & the supposed need to use lethal force on delusional addicts who are immune to pain,
(7) "Squareness" - a poor understanding of & morbid fascination with underground nightlife venues & subcultures where recreational drug use takes place (e.g. opium dens, cabarets, jazz clubs, hippie music festivals, discos, raves),
(8) "White Slavery" fears - i.e. fears about virtuous white women being lured into prostitution through drugs (similar to the media's "missing white woman syndrome"),
(9) "Think of the children" rhetoric - fears about children being lured into drug addiction by drug dealers who hang around schoolyards, often with the belief that they're either daring kids to try drugs or disguising drugs as candy,
(10) Urban Legends & Scare Tactics - unsubstantiated rumors or true but rare stories about horrible things that have happened to drug users which are supposed to serve as cautionary tales; these are often scary for young children but mocked by teenagers.

In the second half of this meetup, we'll shift from "drug panics" to another type of irrational belief that exhibits social contagion - i.e. "drug conspiracy theories". In general, conspiracy theories differ from moral panics in who believes them & what type of bad behavior they allege. Moral panics tend to refer to cases where societal leaders (referred to as "moral entrepreneurs" by sociologists) are able to convince the media to heavily cover a threat allegedly coming from people on the fringes of society (known as "folk devils" by sociologists). Conspiracy theories, on the other hand, typically refer to rumors that are spread among people on the fringes of society that are mostly ignored by the news media and that allege elaborate collusion in wrong-doing among society's elite. Another way of putting is that moral panics tend to focus on "the enemy below" while conspiracy theories tend to focus on "the enemy above". Sociologists argue that "labeling theory" helps explain why "moral panics" are generally something we only recognize after the fact, whereas "conspiracy theories" almost always carry a stigma of irrationality - i.e because initially it's considered normal & rational to demonize "deviant" members of society, whereas suspicion of the more "respectable" members of society is widely considered abnormal & paranoid.

Drug conspiracy theories tend to be spread by political activists & amateur sleuths who are already highly suspicious of certain powerful groups in our society. These conspiracy theories typically allege that drug epidemics are the result of either major corporations or government agencies - or both - colluding to spread addictive drugs. Alleged motives range from monetary profit, to a desire to undermine & destroy certain communities, to other nefarious motives like mass brainwashing or population control. In some ways, drug conspiracy theories can be seen as a negative reaction to the mainstream media's drug war hysteria & a rhetorical defense of the vulnerable against the powerful. Not surprisingly, theories that the government or corporations are behind the drug epidemics appear to be more common in the minority communities & alternative subcultures demonized by drug panics.

Note that just as some "quasi-panics" have an element of truth when they align with real drug epidemics, some drug conspiracy theories might be better called "quasi-conspiracy theories" when they're partly based on proven allegations of corporate or government wrongdoing. Often, if these "quasi-conspiracy theories" line up with stereotypes & biases held by many laypeople and pin blame on a corporation or government agency that already has a tarnished public image, they can become prominently featured in news media stories in a way the more obviously crazy conspiracy theories cannot. In the 3rd & 4th sections of this meetup, we'll look at two common "quasi-conspiracy theories" about drugs - i.e. that the CIA is heavily involved in - and perhaps controls - the world's illegal drug trade, and that "Big Pharma" is essentially a gang of "legal drug dealers" who push medications that are just as harmful (or almost as harmful) as illegal street drugs.

We should note that conspiracy theories can also focus on "the enemy outside" instead of the more typical "enemy above" scenario. Some people think organized crime is a modern phenomenon that was created & monopolized by a single foreign criminal organization like the Sicilian Mafia -- among criminologists, this is known as the "alien conspiracy theory" or "Mafia myth" of organized crime. In the context of the drug trade, we can see the "alien conspiracy theory" in the belief that the "French connection" was entirely responsible for the heroin epidemic of the 1960s or that the Medelin Cartel was entirely responsible for the crack epidemic of the 1980s. A variation on the "alien conspiracy theory" attributes the drug trade to a hostile foreign power seeking to undermine the United States. During the Cold War, many believed drug trafficking was part of a communist plot spearheaded by the Soviet Union, whereas during the War on Terror there's been claims that the international drug trade is run by Islamic terrorists as a way to undermine the West. Since some of these beliefs about drug trafficking have a basis in fact, albeit too simplified & often mixed with fictional elements from the movies, they might better be called "quasi-conspiracy theories".

It's informative to compare & contrast "drugs panics" to the various "alien conspiracy theories" of the drug trade. Whereas "drug panics" tend to portray the spread of drugs as a demand-side phenomenon tied to a growing process of social deviance among the underclass, the "alien conspiracy theory" of the drug trade assumes it's a supply-side phenomenon controlled by an outside group. Nevertheless, both drug panics & alien conspiracy theories often share xenophobic aspects that make them appealing to conservative & reactionary political movements. On the other hand, the anti-corporate & anti-CIA conspiracy theories about the drug trade would seem to have a more obvious appeal for left-wing political movements.

While I wasn't able to find any comprehensive research on the political ideology of those who believe in each of the major conspiracy theories about drugs, I did notice more overlap between left-wing & right-wing beliefs about the ultimate source of our drug problems than you might initially expect. For example, articles on the websites of right-wing organizations like the John Birch Society and the Ludwig von Mises Institute tout many of the same anti-corporate & anti-CIA conspiracy theories about drugs that you'll find at left-wing sites like Alternet & Counterpunch. It looks like the major dividing line is the intersection of drugs & race -- while left-wing sites often feature articles linking the War on Drugs to a covert government conspiracy against people of color, right-wing sites appear more likely to have articles arguing that drugs problems in "the ghetto" are largely self-inflicted & due to immorality.

RELEVANT MATERIAL FROM PAST MEETUPS:

Way back in March of 2017, we had a meetup entitled "A Skeptical Approach to the War on Drugs" - see Section 3 on the health risks of meth use vs ADHD drugs and Section 4 that dealt with opioids & heroin:
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/237619544/

Also in March of 2017, the Philly Political Agnostics had a corresponding meetup on "Black & Grey Markets" - see Section 2 on the economics of illegal drug markets:
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/mwpxjmywfbgb/

In May of 2017, we had a meetup on "The Historical Study of Violence" & Section 2 of the outline dealt with the various theories about the causes of the decline of the violent crime rate in the U.S. in the 1990s. This relates closely to the crack epidemic we'll discuss here in Section 1:
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/239822337/

In December of 2018, we had a meetup on the US prison system and in Part 4 of the outline we addressed the claim that the War on Drugs is a major driver of mass incarceration - the evidence suggest that it's not:
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/lckqkqyxqbvb/

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DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:

The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of the "drug panics" and "drug conspiracy theories" that mislead the public. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles & watch all the videos prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about about 46 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.

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I. THE QUASI-PANIC SURROUNDING THE CRACK EPIDEMIC OF THE 1980s:

  • IS CRACK SO POWERFUL THAT PEOPLE USUALLY BECOME ADDICTED AFTER ONE OR TWO USES? DOES IT OVERRIDE THE WILLPOWER OF MOST ADDICTS TO THE POINT THEY'LL DO ANYTHING FOR ANOTHER HIT?

  • WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF A PREGNANT MOTHER'S CRACK USE ON A DEVELOPING FETUS? ARE "CRACK BABIES" BORN ADDICTED & DO THEY SUFFER SEVERE LIFE-LONG IMPAIRMENTS?

  • WAS THE RATIONALE FOR PUNISHING CRACK COCAINE POSSESSION MORE HEAVILY THAN POWDER COCAINE TO SPECIFICALLY TARGET BLACKS FOR INCARCERATION OR BECAUSE CRACK IS MORE ADDICTIVE?

  • WAS IT CRACK DEALING THAT DROVE THE HIGH MURDER RATE IN THE U.S. IN THE 1980s OR SOMETHING ELSE LIKE BLACK MARKETS FOR GUNS?

  • DID THE MURDER RATE DECLINE AFTER 1993 BECAUSE THE "CRACK EPIDEMIC" CAME TO AN END - I.E. DID CRACK USE DECLINE? IF SO, WHY DID IT END? IF NOT, WHAT CAUSED THE CRIME DROP - BETTER POLICING, ECONOMIC SHIFTS, CULTURAL CHANGES, DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS?

1a) Newsy, "Study Says 'Crack Baby' Epidemic of the '80s Was Overblown" (video - 2:43 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndof78UZqYc

1b) London Real w/ Carl Hart, "Cocaine vs Crack" (video - 5:07 min, listen to 4:45)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iED6XLT6Yos

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II. THE QUASI-PANICS SURROUNDING THE METH & OPIOIDS EPIDEMICS FROM THE LATE 1990s TO THE 2010s:

  • WAS THERE REALLY A "METH EPIDEMIC" IN THE LATE 1990s & 2000s WHERE IT ECLIPSED HEROIN & COCAINE?

  • DOES METH ABUSE CAUSE RAPID TOOTH DECAY ("METH MOUTH") & FACIAL SORES FROM OBSESSIVE SKIN PICKING ("METH MITES")?

  • IS THERE A DOUBLE STANDARD IN HOW THE NEWS MEDIA CURRENTLY TALKS ABOUT OPIOID ADDICTS & HOW THEY TALKED ABOUT CRACK ADDICTS IN THE 1980s? IF SO, IS THIS PROBABLY DUE TO WIDESPREAD RACISM IN THE NEWS MEDIA OR OTHER FACTORS LIKE CLASSISM & LEGALITY VS ILLEGALITY?

  • IF THE MEDIA & POLITICIANS ARE MORE COMPASSIONATE TOWARD WHITE ADDICTS, WHY ARE METH & HEROIN ADDICTS STILL STEREOTYPED AS "WHITE TRASH" AND WHY DOES METH POSSESSION STILL CARRY THE HARSH LEGAL PENALTIES THAT CRACK USED TO?

  • DID RESTRICTING SALES OF EPHEDRINE & SUDAFED HELP REDUCE METH PRODUCTION OR MERELY SHIFT METH PRODUCTION TO MEXICO?

  • IS IT TRUE THAT THE MAJORITY OF METH & HEROIN NOW ENTERING THE U.S. IS BEING SMUGGLED IN FROM MEXICO? IF SO, WOULD TRUMP'S BORDER WALL HELP REDUCE THE ILLEGAL DRUG FLOW?

  • IS CHINA PURPOSELY ALLOWING CHINESE LABS TO SHIP FENTANYL TO THE U.S. WITH THE GOAL OF UNDERMINING OUR SOCIETY, OR DO THEY MERELY NOT HAVE THE RESOURCES TO SHUT THESE LABS DOWN?

  • IS THE ROLE OF MEXICO & CHINA IN THE DRUG TRADE OVERSTATED BY ANTI-IMMIGRANT & TRADE PROTECTIONIST GROUPS?

  • DOES THE USE "SCARE TACTICS" & STIGMATIZING METH & OPIOID ADDICTS HELP REDUCE USAGE OR DOES IT BACKFIRE?

2a) Carl Hart, "Methamphetamine: Where Drug Myths Die" (video - 3:58 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcA6PfaYEHA

2b) CBS w/ Harshal Kirane, "White House launches opioid 'scare' ads" (video - 7:44 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq_kISXMxKo

2c) CNN w/ Sanjay Gupta, "Will Trump's border wall stem flow of drugs into US?" (video - 5:21 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ut8N-cUsdo

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III. CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUT THE CIA CONTROLLING THE IINTERNATIONAL DRUG TRADE:

  • DID THE CIA'S "AIR AMERICA" PROGRAM IN LAOS DURING THE VIETNAM WAR PROVIDE A FRONT FOR OPIUM SMUGGLING?

  • DID BARRY SEAL, THE AMERICAN DRUG SMUGGLER FOR THE MEDELIN CARTEL, SECRETLY WORK FOR THE CIA? WAS HE ASSASSINATED BY HITMEN HIRED BY PABLO ESCOBAR OR POSSIBLY BY THE CIA?

  • WERE THE CLINTONS OR THE BUSHES AWARE OF OR COMPLICIT IN BARRY SEAL'S DRUG SMUGGLING THROUGH THE AIRPORT IN MENA, ARKANSAS IN THE 1980s?

  • WAS JOURNALIST GARY WEBB'S "DARK ALLIANCE" EXPOSE IN 1996 CORRECT THAT THE CIA HELP TRAFFIC COCAINE INTO THE U.S. DURING THE 1980s AS PART OF THE IRAN-CONTRA SCANDAL?

  • IS IT PLAUSIBLE THAT GARY WEBB'S APPARENT SUICIDE IN 2004 WAS AN ASSASSINATION FOR EXPOSING THE CIA'S ROLE IN DRUG SMUGGLING?

  • WAS MANUEL NORIEGA'S INVOLVEMENT IN COCAINE TRAFFICKING IN THE 1980s COVERED UP BY THE CIA BEFORE THEY TURNED ON HIM & INVADED PANAMA IN 1989?

  • DID OPIUM GROWING IN AFGHANISTAN INCREASE DURING THE SOVIET-AFGHAN WAR? IF SO, IS THIS THE FAULT OF THE U.S. FOR SPONSORING THE MUJAHADEEN? DID THIS PLAY A ROLE IN THE RISE OF THE TALIBAN?

  • IS IT TRUE THAT 70% OF THE HEROIN THAT REACHES THE U.S. IS FROM OPIUM POPPIES GROWN IN AFGHANISTAN? OR IS MOST OF IT NOW FROM POPPIES GROWN IN MEXICO?

  • SINCE OUR TROOPS HAVE BEEN STATIONED IN AFGHANISTAN SINCE 2001, WHY HAVEN'T WE BEEN ABLE TO STOP THE OPIUM FARMERS? OR IS IT BECAUSE OUR AFGHAN ALLIES ARE GROWING OPIUM & WE TURN A BLIND EYE?

  • IS THE ROLE OF THE CIA & MILITARY IN DRUG TRAFFICKING OVERSTATED BY THOSE WHO ARE CRITICAL OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY?

3a) AllTime Conspiracies, "Does The CIA Control The International Drug Trade?" (video - 6:00 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfALyTZHMOE

3b) Brian Dunning, "5 Conspiracy Theories that Turned Out to Be True... Maybe? [#5 - CIA Drugs for Guns]" (video -14:05 min, start at 11:19)
https://youtu.be/4pGmBk5uEVk?t=679

  • IS "ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER" (ADHD) A REAL NEUROLOGICAL CONDITION OR AN INVENTION OF THE MEDICAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX THAT STIGMATIZES NATURALLY ENERGETIC PEOPLE & AN EXCUSE TO PRESCRIBE MORE MEDICATIONS?

  • IS IT ACCURATE TO CALL ADHD DRUGS "PRESCRIPTION SPEED"? ARE ADHD DRUGS ADDICTIVE & DO THEY CAUSE SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEMS IN LONG-TERM USERS?

  • DOES USING ADHD DRUGS PREDISPOSE PEOPLE TO USING METH OR OTHER ILLEGAL DRUGS?

  • DO MAJOR PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES & DOCTORS OVER-PRESCRIBE ADHD DRUGS?

  • ARE CHRONIC PAIN DISORDERS ACTUALLY INCREASING, OR IS THIS A PLOT BY THE MEDICAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO PRESCRIBE MORE OPIOIDS?

  • WAS OVER-PRESCRIPTION OF OPIOID PAINKILLERS A MAJOR FACTOR IN STARTING THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC? IF SO, IS THERE ANY EVIDENCE THAT PURDUE PHARMA PROMOTED OXYCONTIN IRRESPONSIBLY, KNOWING THIS COULD LEAD TO ADDICTION?

  • ARE THE MAJORITY OF THE OPIOID OVERDOSE DEATHS DUE TO LEGAL PAIN PILLS OR ILLICIT OPIOIDS LIKE HEROIN & CHINESE FENTANYL? IF IT'S MOSTLY THE LATTER, DOES THAT ABSOLVE BIG PHARMA - OR ARE PRESCRIPTIONS OPIOIDS STILL A GATEWAY DRUG? WHAT PERCENTAGE OF LEGALLY PRESCRIBED USERS PROGRESS TO OPIOID ADDICTION?

  • HOW MUCH OF THE MEDIA FOCUS ON THE ROLE OF "BIG PHARMA" IN THE OPIOID CRISIS IS DUE TO EITHER ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE PRACTITIONERS ATTEMPTING TO DISCREDIT MAINSTREAM MEDICINE AND/OR PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS LOOKING TO SHIFT PUBLIC OPINION TO BE MORE FAVORABLE TO THEIR LAWSUITS?

4a) Adam Conover, "Why Some Prescription Drugs Are More Dangerous than Illegal Drugs" (video - 2:19 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcAkAyI985U

4b) Cato Institute, "Opioid Crisis Not Helped by Panic" (video - 1:15 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkTpAc0xLGI

4c) Jessica McCabe, "Why I'm Upset at Netflix's New Documentary 'Take Your Pills'" (video - 9:30 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdFw10TwLFY

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Cafe Walnut
703 Walnut Street · Philadelphia, PA
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