At Chacruna: Understanding the Kratom Ban Controversy

Hayden Griffin, Ph.DFace-eating zombies, bulletproof criminals, and rampant death of all involved. These seem to be among the most common media stories floated around when discussing newly discovered or emerging drugs. There is a reason for this: sensationalized media seems to sell. As some media ebbs from respected journalism to the blogosphere, these reports may be occurring more frequently.  Within criminology and sociology, there is even a term to describe such media events: “moral panic,” which is used to describe a media overreaction to a seemingly mundane, or at least exaggerated, event... continue reading.