Moral Panics: Spiking and Legal Highs

Spiking

where drugs or alcohol are added to someone's drink without them knowing

Spiking is a illegal and can lead to a 10 year prison sentence. This sentence would be extended if the person who spiked the drink assaulted or robbed the victim also.

There are no reliable statistics to show how many victims of spiking are in the UK however reports show that it is rising.

Although most people know spiking to be adding strong drugs to drinks, the most common form of spiking is adding alcohol. It is added to a non-alcoholic drink. Common types of drugs used to spike drinks are: 

• gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and gamma-butyrolactone (GBL)
• tranquillisers, most often benzodiazepines, including valium and rohypnol 
• ketamine

Spiking is particularly dangerous when mixed with alcohol because when combined they have an extremely powerful anaesthetic effect. This can lead to death. Other side effects of spiking include: 

• lowered inhibitions 
• difficulty concentrating or speaking 
• loss of balance and finding it hard to move 
• visual problems, particularly blurred vision 
• memory loss (amnesia) or "blackouts" 
• feeling confused or disorientated, particularly after waking up (if you've been asleep) 
• paranoia (a feeling of fear or distrust of others) 
• hallucinations (seeing, hearing or touching things that aren't there) or having an "out of body" experience 
• nausea and vomiting 
• unconsciousness

Legal Highs

a substance with stimulant or mood-altering properties whose sale or use is not banned by current legislation regarding the misuse of drugs.

Many ‘legal highs’ are sold with names like ‘Clockwork Orange’, ‘Bliss’, ‘Mary Jane’  and have been know to cause poisoning, emergency hospital admissions including mental health services and i extreme cases - deaths. 

All legal highs can be put into one of the three categories:

• stimulants
• ‘downers’ or sedatives
• psychedelics or hallucinogens.

Legal highs come in a wide variety or forms including powders, pills and liquids. The drugs can be different sizes and colours and the 'ingredients' which must legally be stated on the packaging may not be correct, meaning the consumer does not know what they are taking.

Users can become addicted to legal highs as they contain substances found in other addictive dugs.

Possessing or supplying a ‘legal high’ that contains a banned drug is an offence.

All legal highs must state that they are 'not for human consumption' the the packaging even though this is why people buy them. It would be illegal not to include this on the packaging.

They are supposedly meant for chemical experiments such as heating and mixing and are therefore called 'research chemicals' when purchased.

You must be 18 to purchase legal highs.

They are available from a range of highstreet legal high shops including 'UK Skunkworks'..etc

Moral Panic: Teenage Crime

Moral Panic

Moral panic is when the feeling of anxiety is expressed in a population, which could be locally, nationally or internationally. Moral panic usually occurs when there is an issue that threatens current society - for example the recession.

Moral panic is caused by an increase in negative media coverage. This usually happens when there has been a recent issue, and other past case studies are used to highlight the problem. It allows a large amount of people to hear about the information and pass it on - causing moral panic.

These are a few headlines from various news websites like the Telegraph, Daily Mail and the Huffington Post from either 2014 or 2015.

The moral panic related to teenagers can be reduced by not using demonising labels in newspaper articles i.e. Frenzied and Stab Death.

Although for these headlines to exist the crimes must be happening. To stop moral panic focusing on teenage crimes, headlines and articles could be published on parts of the site that get smaller interest, or controversially not published at all, which is what happened with the Stephen Lawrence trial.

The telegraph posted an article stating that are psychological reasons for certain teenagers to turn to crime. The headline being "Poor boys turned into criminals at school". The article later defined poor boys as "white boys eligible for free school meals".

In poorer regions of the United Kingdom, teachers are more likely to be less qualified at their jobs, with one teacher stating that "proper discipline belonged in the dark age".  Leading to students becoming less interested in learning and turning to other activities such as drinking and crime.

Even statistically the increase in moral panic over teenage crime doesn't make sense. The first graph shows that the number of guilty 18 to 20 year olds has decreased from 60,000 in 1999 to 45,000 in 10 years. 

The second graph shows that the number of arrests between the ages of 10 and 17 has reduced from 500 per 100,000 to less than 200 per 100,00 from 1992 to 2012.

Creating a public anxiety over an issue is a way of keeping the public safe, as it stops people becoming careless with their safety. By scaring the public, they are more likely to stay away from potentially dangerous places.

Another reason could also be to scare younger generations. By exposing them to teenagers with prison sentences, they are less likely to follow the same path and commit crimes. Although the increase in demonising labels aimed at teenagers, that aren't always true, make teenagers more likely to conform to the self-fulfilling prophecy.  

Moral Panics Case Studies

What is moral panic?
Moral panic is…

an instance of public anxiety or alarm in response to a problem regarded as threatening the moral standards of society.

Teenage Crime
Representations in the media
It is clear that the media has an impact on how youths are labelled in real life as they are often represented as violent and rude which influences how people think of them in modern society. Hoody Culture came about in 2005 and since then has become more of a social panic due to the increase of teenage crime – almost 127,000 10-17 y/o arrested in 2012/3, 11.8% of all 1.07 million arrests. These high teenage crime rates are believed to be caused by an increase in the social class divide leading to poverty.
London Riots 2011 // August 6th-11th

• The riots started in Tottenham on Saturday 6th and triggered major events in several major cities including Birmingham. Crimes that took place included looting and arson. Thousands of pounds of damage was made to infrastructure and there were five fatalities.
• In the media coverage of the riots including television and newspapers, they seemed to focus on the youths as the main offenders. The majority of the footage was teenagers/youth adults and they were therefore seen as the main culprits. A lot of images circulated on social media such as twitter as the majority of the users are ages 29 and below (53%)
• A government report highlighted that around half the people who appeared in court with cases related to the riots were under 18. A summary on the guardian website states that 98 of the arrests in London in one night were born in the 1990’s (63% of all arrests)

• People in the riot areas were afraid to leave their homes and youths were immediately ‘to blame’ for the violence and disruption.
• Even today it is evident that coverage of teenage crime is high – creating labels on all youths which are not always true.
• Youth are often the scapegoat in society.



Ideal Image in the media and links to health problems

It is common from celebrities to be judged and compared to societies high standards of the perfect body image. Images of them are published along with comments on flaws in their bodies leading audiences to think this is unacceptable. This leads the audience (often young girls) to compare themselves to these ideals.
Fat shaming  is commonly seen in gossip  magazines where paparazzi images of celebrities are mocked and analysed and studies into this are linking these issues to health problems.
 

1,791 under 19 year olds were in hospital in 2013-14 because of eating disorders.

Experts believe there is a link between this number and the “increased exposure to images of celebrities’ bodies” (Denis Campbell, The Guardian, June 2015)

Moral panic case studies

Moral panic case studies

Fear of terrorism-  ISIS shootings in Tunisia
- Seifeddine Rezgui was high on drugs as he murdered tourists in Tunisia

- A stimulant was detected by doctors during a post-mortem examination

- Police confirmed that an unexploded bomb was found on Rezgui’s body

- He murdered 38 tourists and didn’t show any remorse

- Due to the shootings in Tunisia, holiday bookings in the area had significantly reduced as people are now afraid  to visit the area in case a similar event occurred again. This area depends on tourism as it is its highest source of income, meaning many residents are suffering as a result and are unable to provide for themselves and their families, they are now having to move to different areas in search for employment.

- This attack caused warnings in other countries such as Britain, due to 30 of the 38 victims being British, as it may have been a direct attack on British people. Bomb attacks were warned across the country which caused fear amongst people as the fear of terrorism occurring grows.

 

Illegal Immigration- channel tunnel 

- Thousands of legal immigrants are trying to smuggle themselves into lorries, cars and the euro tunnel in order to gain entrance into the country.

- This is causing fear amongst people in the UK as its causing the uk population to increase dramatically, with the population already at 64 million its increasing by between 310,000 and 570,000 due illegal immigration. There is overcrowding and increased burden in public places and public.
- In May 2006 it was estimated that there could be around 500,000 illegal workers in the UK. 
- The fear of illegal immigration is also present due to the increased crime rate among the population as well as increased risk of cases related to human trafficking.
- There is a lingering fear of a gradual imbalance in the ethnic diversity, which can lead to the dominance of one particular language or culture in the society. 
- The country invests in quite a fortune for illegal immigrant maintenance cost and at the end of the day there is no government reimbursement of the fund.
- However Britain's economy would be lost without immigration. 

Why is there so much media
coverage on terrorism?

 

A fear headline (YOU WILL NEVER BE SAFE), combined with a photo of a man with bloodied hands, is the perfect image that the terrorists want to see being passed on to the wider public. Terrorists want to create fear, shouldn’t we all be trying to fight this by not allowing these images to be seen in public? Yet the media continues to publish similar stories every day.

 

 

Moral Panics

Possible examples of current moral panics:
- Terroism
- Gangs
- Drugs
- Phone hacking
- Riots
- Legalisation of guns in America
- Bullying
- War
- Sexuality
- Immigration
- Racism

From this list I choose to research and create a film idea on terrorism:


























*My film idea on terrorism is based on a diary entry by a young girl about her experience growing up in a family surrounded by terrorism and her story on how she escapes the war zone.

Here is a couple of examples of existing films on terrorism:

MUNICH 2006

Munich is a 2005 historical drama and political thriller film based on Operation Wrath of God, the Israeli government's secret retaliation against the Palestine Liberation Organization after the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.


UNITED 93 2006

United 93 is a 2006 drama film written, co-produced and directed by Paul Greengrass that chronicles events aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked during the September 11 attacks of 2001. 

Social Context Study: Moral Panic

Moral Panics

Current fears in society:

• Terrorism - ISIS Shootings in Tunisia, June 2015
• Immigration - Operation Stack, June 2015
• Theme Park Accidents - Alton Towers, June 2015
• Prisons and Police Violence - Sandra Bland Suicide, July 2015
• Homosexuality - The legalisation of gay marriage in the US, June 2015
• School sex crimes - more than 5,500 crimes in past 3 years, August 2015
• Rioting - Baltimore Riots, April 2015
• Advancing technology - Bulletproof skin (genetic engineering), January 2012

 

Possible film ideas:

1. Advancing technology - genetically engineering armies of humans to go into war. Could be an action thriller film with inspiration from superhero films i.e. Captain America being genetically modified. Could end in a dystopian world or the making of a dangerous society.

2. Prisons and Police Violence - a film focusing on different prisoners and their experiences before, during and after arrest. Could focus on the actions taken by prison staff and the police force.

Advancing Technology Film Idea

Scientists have found a way to use spider silk to create bulletproof skin. Spider silk is four times stronger than Kevlar which is used in bulletproof vests.

·         The silk making gene is taken from a spider

·         The gene is placed into the udder cells of a goat

·         The goat produces milk infused with spider silk - up to 2300m per day

·         Silk is genetically put into skin

Existing Film Influences

 

Captain America

 

It is set in 1940's when Steve Rogers joins the army. Due to his slim figure, the army general does not deem him fit to be in the forces, but signs him up to the Special-Soldier programme - an experimental project. The serum used leaves Rogers with super strength, agility and intelligence and leaves the scientist wanting to test it on other human beings.

 

This could be an inspiration for a similar film idea, as it is relevant to the recent social issue of genetically modifying humans and whether it is morally right. Genetic modification is explored in this film by questioning whether modifying soldiers in the army to be able to fight more efficiently is a good enough reason to make it more accessible.

Due to the constant technological advances, eventually our world may become the same.
 

In Time

In Time is a film set in the future, when time is used instead of money. When your time runs out you die. This is another film with the influence of our changing society and beliefs around money. Nowadays, there are many influences about the way we should see money i.e. music videos and video games, which make us believe the more money we have, the happier we will be.

The film explores that having money/time may not make you happy, which could be a good inspiration for our film trailer considering the current economy and moral panics over money and debt.

Moral Panics

The definition of a moral panic is;

an instance of public anxiety or alarm in response to a problem regarded as threatening the moral standards of society

Examples of modern moral panics in todays society are;

• Perfectionism
• Terrorism - ISIS
• Sexuality
• Race
• Lack of power
• Debt and unemployment – Increasing unemployment
• Change
• Lack of acceptance
• No security
• Chaos
• Poverty
• Death
• Immigration
• Suffering
• Lack of control
• Responsibility
• Punishment
• Social Class divide gap widening
• War
• Ageing
• Crime
• Technology advance
• Drugs
• Illness and Disease – 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak.
• Mental Health -http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/07/modern-life-dementia-40s-neurological-disease
• Police – Sandra Bland’s Death in Texas prison cell July 2015 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-33573743

From this list, I have chosen two social panics and come up with film ideas for each:

• ·       Mental Health –young adult with dementia, forgets about her past, art, starts remembering past through his/her art
• ·       No security/poverty – life of a homeless person, someone becomes homeless and the story of how they become homeless and recover

Dementia

·       It is a common misconception that dementia only affects those over 65 years of age and that it is impossible to get it before this age. However it is possible to get it at any age and media sources are always presenting new ideas to help ‘avoid’ getting it or things that cause it however this can cause a lot of worry amongst the media consumers.

·       For example, this article introduces ideas that argues air pollution and chemicals in the food chain gives us a higher chance of developing dementia earlier in life.

Deconstruction of the trailer for Still Alice

•        Stable family situation, good job (“Welcome Dr Alice …”)
•        Disequilibrium – starts to forget, music stops
•        “I have Alzheimer’s disease; early onset” – reaction shots of family
•        Fast paced shots of her dropping things and panicking with non-diegetic voiceover of her talking about forgetting
•        Music gets louder and happier as she tries to adapt to her new life

Ebola

·       The West Africa Ebola epidemic of 2014 caused worldwide panic. Travel was banned to some areas and people began to panic. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28755033     

The anxiety spread worldwide as Ebola become more common and cases were picked up in new countries.