Abstract

Background

News media helps set the agenda for public thinking and policy responses to drugs use, by framing substances, substance use and people who use drugs (PWUD) within a ‘drug scare’ narrative. Using the example of ‘monkey dust’, an inconsistently identified set of substituted cathinone psychostimulants, we explored how an emerging drug ‘problem’ was reported in the UK news media, and what this tells us about prevailing attitudes towards substance use and PWUD.

Methods

A quantitative and qualitative analysis of UK news media (n = 368 articles) representations of ‘monkey dust’ was conducted, and the underlying discourses identified.

Findings

Monkey dust reporting met the criteria of a drug scare, which was predominantly underpinned by discourses of criminality and legality. An unrepresentative, somewhat distorted, incomplete and simplified account of monkey dust as new and dangerous, and as requiring urgent legislative action, was provided. PWUD were dehumanised, criminalised, and stigmatised and the complexities of use, and responses other than those that fell within the status quo, obscured.

Conclusions

To prevent the negative impact such reporting may have on PWUD, it is important that relevant stakeholders, including advocacy groups, academics, and researchers, work with journalists to change the way drug use and PWUD are reported.

中文翻译：

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“僵尸”、“食人者”和“超级人类”：对英国新闻媒体报道的标记为“猴尘”的卡西酮精神兴奋剂的定量和定性分析

摘要

背景

新闻媒体通过在“药物恐慌”叙述中构建物质、物质使用和吸毒者 (PWUD)，帮助制定公众对毒品使用的思考和政策响应议程。以“猴粉”为例，这是一组不一致的替代卡西酮精神兴奋剂，我们探讨了英国新闻媒体如何报道新出现的药物“问题”，以及这告诉我们对物质使用和 PWUD 的普遍态度是什么。

方法

对英国新闻媒体（n  = 368 篇文章）对“猴尘”的表述进行了定量和定性分析，并确定了潜在的话语。

发现

猴子粉尘报告符合毒品恐慌的标准，该标准主要以犯罪和合法性话语为基础。提供了一个不具代表性、有些扭曲、不完整和简化的将猴尘描述为新的和危险的，需要紧急立法行动的描述。PWUD 被非人化、刑事化和污名化，使用的复杂性以及不属于现状的反应都变得模糊不清。

结论

为防止此类报道可能对 PWUD 产生负面影响，重要的是相关利益相关者，包括倡导团体、学者和研究人员，与记者合作，改变报道吸毒和 PWUD 的方式。