From Britain: A case of media distortion in the "drug war":
I don't like drugs, but the "war" against them can give us some revealing views into the media and status quo.
18-year old Leah Betts was at a rave (A really intense dance party) where she drank alcohol, took dope and a popular (taken by about 500,000 people each weekend in the UK alone) rave drug called Ecstasy.
Before going on, lets examine raves some more: "A recent study by the Ergonomics Society found that heat levels in many [rave] clubs were a health risk, raising body temperatures above World Health organisation guidelines for the workplace. In one nightclub - which had good ventilation - the temperature was 84 degrees F with 70% - 90% humidity. After dancing for one hour in these conditions, the body temperature of clubbers had risen above 101 degrees F and they had lost, on average, one litre of sweat. Computer calculations showed that if they had continued to dance for a further three hours, their body temperatures would have risen to 104 degrees F (40 degrees C). In 1994, three deaths occurred at nightclubs; they were all admitted to hospital with body temperatures of above 105.8 degrees F (41degrees C). In a survey of nightclub regulars, 88% reported heat-related illnesses. If your body temperature rises above 42 degrees C, then your blood begins to form small clots which stick to your artery walls. This process uses up the clotting agent in the blood, leaving nothing to prevent bleeding. There are always tiny cuts and scratches inside the body and brain due to the body replacing worn and damaged tissue; normally these leaks are plugged by the clotting of blood. But above 42 degrees C this goes unchecked. Amphetamine [A less famous rave drug], Ecstasy and exercise all increase the blood pressure, [and cause dehydration] worsening the effect. If bleeding occurs in the brain, it can cause a stroke. If bleeding occurs for long enough it is possible to bleed to death. Heatstroke is the major cause of Ecstasy-related deaths..."
Most of the 7 ecstacy-related rave deaths in the UK from 1989 to 1992 were from dehydration, though Leah Betts died of water intoxication.
In response, British billboard advertisers designed posters and donated them free of charge to a state-backed campaign in the "war against drugs" - that is, the war against illegal drugs, the ones big business and taxmen can't profit from. The billboard advertisers never donated any space for a picture of any of the hundreds and thousands of tobacco victims, or weight-loss drugs, or pollution, or poverty... No real evidence or information was provided, only the raw emotional power of a dead girl. The campaign was irresponsible for many reasons:
1. Teenagers are always attracted to "danger"
2. They also defy authority by instinct
3. Demonizing one drug makes people assume that others are safe (though ecstasy is among the least dangerous)
4. Overall it created the illusion that the government is trying to save the lives of teenagers, distracting attention away from things that could actually make a difference. (Like a billboard against Tobacco, or creating a real democracy, for that matter.)
When Chumbawamba mailed postcards critical of the billboard campaigns to newspapers, the result was fast and furious.
"Leah's photo hijacked to back Ecstasy" ran a headline. The postcard was described as a "pro-ecstasy campaign". They telephoned a woman whose daughter had died from drugs, gave her their destription of the postcard, and then quoted the response. The billboard ad agency then described the postcards as "exploiting Leah's death to sell records."
Another newspaper reprinted the original story, who then called up Chumbawamba's regional press worker and tried to entrap him into admitting drug use.
With the press being so certain of the moral outrage caused by the postcard, what did Leah's parents think?
"That is exactly what we want - more information" - they said, agreeing with one of the messages in the postcard. They also stated that they agreed with the postcard in its resistence to the government "which fights Ecstasy but makes billions from legal killers like cigarettes and alcohol".