Comments on: Will There Be A Pill Panic?

By: RCinProv

RCinProv — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 02:36:59 +0000

Or, it might just cause an intellectual panic: a surge of anxiety among “moral panic” academics that exceeds the real extent of the so-called panic.

By: AcK

AcK — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:15:48 +0000

Actually, the notion that pills might be “the new marijuana” suggests not panic, but an end-run around panic. Despite the hip new anti-pot ad campaigns, almost no one is genuinely upset about marijuana use, at least partly because “everyone’s doing it.” If so, characterizing pill abuse as “the new marijuana” is really just saying its “the new illegal drug that everyone’s doing and no one’s really upset about.” And that’s consistent, in a way, with both Dan’s idea that the drug companies might be able to insulate pill abuse from popular hysteria (maybe “its the new marijuana” is a sneaky sort of PR campaign), and Patrick’s idea that universal use cuts against hysteria.

By: Patrick S. O'Donnell

Patrick S. O'Donnell — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:01:42 +0000

I doubt there’ll be a panic of any significant duration if only because anecdotal evidence and reliance on cognitive heuristics convinces me that so many people are popping pills today that social anxiety can’t get off the ground. Not a few of my students are taking pills for some sort of psychological discomfort and my wife assures me that an alarming number of her co-workers at her hospital are taking prescription drugs to treat (modern?) mental ailments. So Big Pharma need not (micro) manage this moment, they’ve been in control for some time now.