Compare Media Attention Paid to Certain Kinds of Drug Use

question 21

Essay

Compare media attention paid to certain kinds of drug use over, say, the past century, and compare that paid to other drugs, then match the volume of each with respect to clear-cut harms-for instance, death by overdose. Consider that benzodiazepines (tranquilizers such as Valium) and antidepressants rank in the top five drugs that cause death by overdose, yet methamphetamine and amphetamine do not appear on this list at all (nor does marijuana). What do you think accounts for this discrepancy? Are all the reasons "constructionist" in nature-that is, not based on the objective harms of the drugs in question at all? Or are concrete, objectivistic reasons behind these discrepancies as well?

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