Opiates and methamphetamines: the social construction of two drug epidemics in West Virginia

Abstract

Historically, the categorization of drug epidemics as major social problems in the United States has been rife with racial and ethnic disparities, and public opinion and policy responses to these issues have been shaped by the way these epidemics have been characterized. This thesis investigates two contemporary drug epidemics in a specific geographic and social context: the methamphetamine epidemic in the mid-2000s and the current opioid epidemic as represented by the two daily newspapers of Charleston, West Virginia. Contrary to previous drug epidemics which have largely scapegoated urban minority groups, these two have been characterized as impacting white, suburban, and rural populations, making this comparison a novel contribution to the theoretical understanding of the social construction of drug epidemics in the United States. The author conducted a content analysis of a total of 374 articles published in the years 2005 and 2014 in order to better understand who were the authorities making claims about these respective epidemics, what were their messages, and how these changed from one epidemic to the next. During the opioid epidemic, the media relied on health and addiction experts to frame their narratives of the drug epidemic far more frequently than during the meth epidemic, suggesting a more medicalized view of addiction had developed in the ten year period between the two. This analysis provides evidence that white meth users tend to be characterized as less sympathetic than white opiate users by authorities in the media. ☐ KEY WORDS: methamphetamine; opioids; drug epidemic; West Virginia; content analysis; social problems; social construction; media; medicalization.