Essay on Propaganda, Stereotypes, and the War on Drugs

Propaganda, Stereotypes, and the War on Drugs The West has constantly been fighting the use of illegal drugs for decades by Propaganda. Propaganda ‘is a form of manipulative communication designed to elicit some predetermined response’ (Inge, 1981, 322). Governments have been using many propagandistic methods to reduce the consumption of illegal drugs such as marginalization or creating stereotypes. By creating a certain stereotype for the drug users and dealers, governments believe that people would try to avoid drugs so they won’t fit the stereotype. Extensive researche has been performed on this issue and there was no support that this propaganda tactic made a significant difference in the use of illegal drugs. To understand†¦show more content†¦The media indirectly tells us, â€Å"do you want to look like those dirty, Lazy Mexicans, or those rapists?† Another propaganda technique to convince the public against the use of drugs is by relating it to crime (Solomon,1968, 126) and terrorism. A month after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, Tony Blair stated in his speech that ninety percent of heroin sold in Brittan was imported from Afghanistan. Using the stereotype that people from Afghanistan were terrorists, Tony Blair connected drugs and heroin with terrorism and that buying drugs from Afghanistan is an indirect tool for their terrorism. Blair states that; â€Å"The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for with the lived of young British people buying their drugs on British streets†¦ That is another part of their regime that we should seek to destroy† (Fitzpatrick, 2001). Blair’s thesis is that the â€Å"War on Drugs† is really the â€Å"War on terrorism† and if one is patriotic, he/she would stay away from buying drugs since it benefits the real enemy which is terrorism. In the last decade, drug use has been very high which elicited the government to take a stronger stand. Drug awareness programs were held in schools which over-exaggerated the harm of drugs and ‘drug dealers are often portrayed as predators preying on the misery of their customers’ (Preston, 2001). Drug users on the other hand are portrayed as beingShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Stanley Cohen s Folk Devils And Moral Panics 1438 Words   |  6 PagesThe use of media can create unnecessary panic about a range of different subjects, one of the most popular being drugs. 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