News Brief: Fentanyl In Our Halloween Candy and Liberal Messaging Failures of the Overdose Crisis
Added 2022-10-28 15:29:51 +0000 UTCIn this Halloween-themed News Brief, we debunk the idea drug dealers are handing out fentanyl candy to our children. But we also examine why these copaganda panics are able to take hold: namely the failure of liberals to provide an alternative, non-carceral vision for how to handle the very real and urgent overdose crisis.
Our guest is Citations Needed Senior Drug Correspondent Zach Siegel.
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Guest
Zachary Siegel is a journalist and researcher. He co-writes Substance, a newsletter about drugs and crime, with journalist Tana Ganeva.
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Show Notes
Rainbow fentanyl is a war-on-drugs tactic
Annalisa Merelli | October 5, 2022 | Quartz
Rainbow fentanyl candy is just the latest Halloween panic
Alex Abad-Santos | October 27, 2022 | Vox
The media and the Halloween ‘rainbow fentanyl’ scare
Paul Farhi | October 26, 2022 | The Washington Post
Rainbow fentanyl passed out on Halloween? Why experts say that's 'absolutely ludicrous.'
Jordan Mendoza | October 26, 2022 | USA Today
Should Parents Really Be Worried About Rainbow Fentanyl?
Joel Best | October 18, 2022 | Scientific American
Is 'rainbow fentanyl' a threat to your kids this Halloween? Experts say no
Brian Mann | October 11, 2022 | NPR Morning Edition
Fox News Goes Into Full Panic Mode on Rainbow Fentanyl: No Trick-or-Treating!
William Vaillancourt | September 27, 2022 | The Daily Beast
That Tainted Halloween Candy Myth Just Won’t Go Away
Daniel Victor & Aimee Ortiz | October 27, 2021 | The New York Times
The myth of poisoned Halloween candy
German Lopez | October 31, 2018 | Vox
What’s Really Going on in Those Police Fentanyl Exposure Videos?
Zachary Siegel | July 13, 2022 | The New York Times
Fainting From Fentanyl Exposure? Nope.
Derek Lowe | July 15, 2022 | Science
Cops Keep Having Impossible Fentanyl "Seizures" On Camera For Some Reason
Noor Al-Sibai | July 17, 2022 | Futurism
The Supposed Epidemic of “Fentanyl Exposure” Among Cops Is Completely Bogus
Natalie Shure | August 1, 2022 | The New Republic
Brandon del Pozo, Emily Sightes, Sunyou Kang, Jeremiah Goulka, Bradley Ray & Leo A. Beletsky | November 24, 2021 | Health & Justice
Leo Beletsky, Sarah Seymour, Sunyou Kang, Zachary Siegel, Michael S. Sinha, Ryan Marino, Aashka Dave & Clark Freifeld | December 2020 | The International Journal on Drug Polcy
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Transcript
A full transcript of this News Brief is coming soon. You can find all Citations Needed transcripts here.
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Credits
Senior Producer: Florence Barrau-Adams
Producer: Julianne Tveten
Production Assistant: Trendel Lightburn
Newsletter: Marco Cartolano
Transcription: Morgan McAslan
Music: Grandaddy
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Comments
Another point I’ll make is from Trillbilly’s, another podcast I listen to, which is that opioids were being mass marketed and pushed especially onto working class people with chronic often manual labor related physical pain at the same time that the Appalachian mining industry was hemorrhaging jobs. In essence opioids served as another form of class warfare, not dissimilar to the role crack cocaine okayed in Black communities in previous decades.
Jordan Scheibel
2022-10-29 02:25:41 +0000 UTCGreat news brief. I’ve seen this panic play out a bit in my social media a month or so ago and it was gratifying to see Adam had the same reaction I did. One thing that you didn’t touch on in the episode is that part of the reality denial in these stories is that chronic drug use is strongly related to mental health. The nature of our society, based on privatization, precarity, monetizing everything, austerity, competition, etc, produces alienation that leads to despair and mental illness. So much mental illness and drug addiction at this point is so clearly structural in nature. By pointing to outside actors and boogeymen, it’s a way of deflecting blame and self reflection away from the nature of society itself, and how rotted out our communities are economically, socially, and spiritually.
Jordan Scheibel
2022-10-29 02:21:52 +0000 UTC
