Synthetic Panics : : The Symbolic Politics of Designer Drugs / / Philip Jenkins.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Archive eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Jenkins, Philip,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [1999]; ©1999
• Year of Publication: 1999
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

America has a long history of drug panics in which countless social problems have been blamed on the devastating effects of some harmful substance. In the last forty years, such panics have often focused on synthetic or designer drugs, like methamphetamine, PCP, Ecstasy, methcathinone, and rave drugs like ketamine, and GHB. Fear of these substances has provided critical justification for the continuing "war on drugs." Synthetic Panics traces the history of these anti-drug movements, demonstrating that designer chemicals inspire so much fear not because they are uniquely dangerous, but because they bring into focus deeply rooted public concerns about social and cultural upheaval. Jenkins highlights the role of the mass media in spreading anti-drug hysteria and shows how proponents of the war on drugs use synthetic panics to scapegoat society's "others" and exacerbate racial, class, and intergenerational conflict.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NOTE ON USAGE -- ABBREVIATIONS -- ONE. Synthetic Panics -- TWO. Speed Kills -- THREE. Monsters -- FOUR. Suppressing Ecstasy -- FIVE. The Menace That Went Away -- SIX. The CAT Attack, 1993–94 -- SEVEN. Redneck Cocaine -- EIGHT. Rave Drugs and Rape Drugs -- NINE. The Next Panic -- ABBREVIATIONS IN NOTES -- NOTES -- INDEX -- ABOUT THE AUTHOR