Introduction I
‘Bloody safe’, ‘drug hell’ or pure propaganda?
A bibliography of New Zealand publications on methamphetamine, ecstasy, and social tonics.
INFO 580 research paper for the Master of Library and Information Studies: Victoria University of Wellington.
Simon Chamberlain
June 2005
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my supervisor, Rachel Lilburn, for encouraging words, incisive, practical advice, and for much-appreciated guidance on the overall structure and direction of this work.
Thanks to the staff of Victoria University Library, the National Library, the Alexander Turnbull Library and the ALAC library for rapid interloan and reference services.
Thanks to Drake for feedback on the final draft.
Thanks to Rhonda for support at the Turnbull, for commenting on this work at multiple stages, and for putting up with the fact that I was spending so much of my time on this project.
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. You are free to copy, distribute and display the work, in whole or part, in any format, providing that you:
attribute the work appropriately (including at least the following information: author, date, title and (if citing an electronic version of this work, provide a hyperlink to that document);
make clear these terms to others.
Your fair use and other rights are not affected by these terms.
Abstract
This bibliography explores the scientific and medical literature surrounding each drug, and the policy (whether governmental or non-governmental) informed by that literature. It further explores media coverage of these drugs.
A search was conducted that utilised electronic databases to locate relevant documents. Key resources were Index New Zealand, the National Bibliographic Database, Newztext and MedLINE. Further searches of the catalogues of individual libraries were conducted, and internet searches identified material that has only been published in electronic form.
Coverage is limited to New Zealand material (including major overseas publications by New Zealand authors) published between 1988 and 2005. The focus is on text-based material, primarily in print but also in electronic form. The bibliography contains analytical annotations for each entry, subject and author indexes, and a glossary .
It is hoped that this bibliography will fill a gap in the published literature on the legal and social aspects of stimulants in New Zealand. Research has shown that no such bibliography exists.
Problem statement
New Zealand, like most other countries, has struggled in recent years with the health and legal aspects of recreational drug use. The debate over these issues has taken place in the scientific literature, at a governmental level, and in the popular media. In recent years, the media has become increasingly focused on the use of drugs (predominately stimulants) associated with the dance party and rave scene. In general the media has taken the line that such drugs are harmful and should therefore be banned. However, media reports and even government policy may not necessarily accurately reflect the true level of potential harm posed by each drug. Media reports, especially, are unlikely to be informed by the scientific research.
No bibliography of documents on stimulant drugs exists. There is value in compiling such a bibliography, especially those documents with a research or policy focus. This could be used to inform further research in this subject area. The research is of potential interest to readers from a range of perspectives: sociology, health, law, government and the media.
Objectives
To provide a selective, annotated bibliography of recent New Zealand literature to enable the audience to explore issues surrounding the effects, legal status, and media coverage of three related psychoactive drugs – two illegal, one legal. To compile a disparate set of bibliographic records into one bibliography.
Background
The bibliography examined the similarities and differences in media coverage given to these drugs, and explored the interactions of similarities and differences between:
- the media coverage of these drugs;
- legislation governing the drugs, and the policy and advice issued by governmental and non-governmental agencies; and
- the medical and scientific evidence describing the mechanism of operation of these drugs, their effects, and the potential risks and consequent potential to cause harm.
Included
Material relating to the following drugs were included in the bibliography:
- methamphetamine ('P', 'pure');
- MDMA and related drugs ('ecstasy');
- BZP-based substances ('social tonics' 'herbal highs', 'legal highs').
There were specific reason for choosing these three drugs, and excluding other psychoactive substances, both legal and illegal. All three are covered by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 (or soon will be in the case of social tonics). That is, all three have been the subject of government regulation. All are stimulants, and have similar effects on the human brain and body.
The key reason for this choice is their place in New Zealand society. All three are used as stimulants, and are commonly used at dance parties to enable users to dance for many hours without tiring, to enhance communication by removing inhibitions, and for feelings of well-being or pleasure. They may be used in other settings (at private parties, at concerts, in pubs, in the outdoors, even in the crowd at rugby matches). Yet it with dance parties that the use of these drugs is most frequently associated.
The three drugs have been subject to a high level of media and public interest in recent years, a coverage that (especially in the case of methamphetamine) could be said to have become a moral panic (a mass movement based on the perception that a group is dangerously deviant and poses a threat to society: Cohen 1972, Wikipedia 2005). Some argue that the drugs pose serious health risks and are linked to crime. Others claim the risks are over-stated, and cite beneficial aspects of drug use. Criticism of social tonics has been more muted than that of the other drugs.
So from a sociological perspective it is interesting to analyse the media coverage of the three drugs. The approach taken by the government to these drugs is also of interest from at least two perspectives: health promotion and legislation. The decision to treat social tonics as a health issue and regulate them can be compared to the decision to treat ecstasy and methamphetamine as legal issues and criminalise their use. Further, the approach of government to the health issues posed by methamphetamine and ecstasy is interesting – the 'harm reduction' approach which is used can be contrasted with other potential approaches such as 'just say no'.
Excluded
other recreational psychoactive drugs were excluded from this biography. The reasons are as follows:
- alcohol and cannabis: are depressants, not stimulants – and are widely used outside dance parties;
- nicotine: is widely used but not truly psychoactive;
- GHB/LSD/2C-B/ketamine: sometimes used at dance parties, but are hallucinogens (and a depressant, in the case of GHB), not stimulants;
- cocaine: a stimulant, but very rarely found in New Zealand due to its price;
- heroin: a depressant, not a stimulant. Occupies a very different place in society.
Additionally, relatively little media attention is currently paid to these substances. GHB and cannabis are exceptions, though the coverage of GHB has declined dramatically since it was criminalised.