By Liam Michaud a a , b , * , Gillian Kolla c , d , Katherine Rudzinski Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada b e , Adrian Guta

The ongoing overdose and drug toxicity crisis in North America has contributed momentum to the emergence of safer supply prescribing and programs in Canada as a means of providing an alternative to the highly volatile unregulated drug supply. The implementation and scale-up of safer supply have been met with a vocal reaction on the part of news media commentators, conservative politicians, recovery industry representatives, and some prominent addiction medicine physicians. This reaction has largely converged around several narratives, based on unsubstantiated claims and anecdotal evidence, alleging that safer supply programs are generating a "new opioid epidemic", reflecting an emerging alignment among key institutional and political actors. Employing situational analysis method, and drawing on the policy studies and social science scholarship on moral panics, this essay examines news media coverage from January to July 2023, bringing this into dialogue with other existing empirical sources on safer supply (e.g. Coroner's reports, program evaluations, debates among experts in medical journals). We employ eight previously established criteria delineating moral panics to critically appraise public dialogue regarding safer supply, diverted medication, and claims of increased youth initiation to drug use and youth overdose. In detailing the emergence of a moral panic regarding safer supply, we trace historic continuities with earlier drug scares in Canadian history mobilized as tools of racialized poverty governance, as well as previous backlashes towards healthcare interventions for people who use drugs (PWUD). The essay assesses the claims of moral entrepreneurs against the current landscape of opioid use, diversion, and overdose among youth, notes the key role played by medical expertise in this and previous moral panics, and identifies what the convergence of these narratives materialize for PWUD and healthcare access, as well as the broader policy responses such narratives activate.

International Journal of Drug Policy 127 (2024) 104423

By Aaron Chalfin, Greg Ridgeway, John MacDonald, Rachel Ryley

The Philadelphia Police Department began distributing 435 mobile smartphones to officers in police districts 22, 24, and 25 in February 2021. At the same time PPD established Crime Information Centers (CICs) to facilitate analysis and information sharing. We compared changes in police-related outcomes in districts 22, 24, and 25 with six districts (12, 14, 15, 19, 35, 39) that received no phones and had similar levels of serious crime. The smartphones provided officers with improved access to information and a convenient technology to receive requests for intelligence crucial to investigations, report street-level intelligence, and communicate directly with members of the community. Mobile phones/CICs have public safety benefits • An increase in the violent crime clearance rate from 24% to 30% • An increase in the likelihood that a stop resulted in an arrest — from 10% to 28% — suggesting more surgical policing, without increasing the number of stops conducted Mobile phones substantially ease regular PPD officers’ tasks • Greatly increased the amount and variety of evidence collected – Weekly uploads increased 40% after at least one SIG detective received a phone • Facilitated 311 reports to address physical disorder in districts • Made officers more willing and able to create intelligence reports • Enhanced basic communication between police and community members through calls and text messages, including direct contact about the location of illegal firearms • Can improve the completeness and timeliness of NCIC/PCIC checks, patrol logs, and court notices PPD has more to gain from mobile IT and CICs • More incentives are needed to promote smartphone use among officers. A few officers in each of the pilot districts were more active users of the smartphones – 5/7 squads use the phones a lot, others were infrequent users  – 3 officers submitted half of the 311 requests – 86% of officers submitted no intelligence reports at all – Usage has essentially ended in District 22 • Regular use of phones among officers could support mission-directed patrol – Monitoring the time spent in mission areas – Documenting mission-related business checks and home visits – Promote intelligence reports in mission areas • PPD could encourage additional phone usage – Encourage officers to share information and give feedback on how their intel reports and 311 reports are solving community problems – Emphasize phone usage in CompStat by tracking key metrics ∗ Time spent in strategic areas ∗ Number of leads connected to shootings or priority incidents ∗ Volume of direct calls/messages from community leading to crime clearances – Establish a clear policy on expected phone use, monitor use, and provide feedback to command staff and officers on the successful uses of technology  

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Crime and Justice Policy Lab, 2022. 43p.

By Ashly Fuller | Marie Vasek | Enrico Mariconti  | Shane D. Johnson

Issues: The sale of illicit drugs online has expanded to mainstream social media apps. These platforms provide access to a wide audience, especially children and adolescents. Research is in its infancy and scattered due to the multidisciplinary aspects of the phenomena. Approach: We present a multidisciplinary systematic scoping review on the advertisement and sale of illicit drugs to young people. Peer-reviewed studies written in English, Spanish and French were searched for the period 2015 to 2022. We extracted data on users, drugs studied, rate of posts, terminology used and study methodology. Key Findings: A total of 56 peer-reviewed papers were included. The analysis of these highlights the variety of drugs advertised and platforms used to do so. Various methodological designs were considered. Approaches to detecting illicit content were the focus of many studies as algorithms move from detecting drug-related keywords to drug selling behaviour. We found that on average, for the studies reviewed, 13 in 100 social media posts advertise illicit drugs. However, popular platforms used by adolescents are rarely studied. Implications: Promotional content is increasing in sophistication to appeal to young people, shifting towards healthy, glamourous and seemingly legal depictions of drugs. Greater inter-disciplinary collaboration between computational and qualitative approaches are needed to comprehensively study the sale and advertisement of illegal drugs on social media across different platforms. This requires coordinated action from researchers, policy makers and service providers. 

Drugs and Alcohol Review, 2023

By Matt Freear and Andrew Glazzard

Communications and the tools of the media age have been at the centre of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) for many years. Often emerging in reaction to terrorist narratives, the emphasis has been on how to most impactfully distribute narratives that counter or present an alternative vision. The debate amongst practitioners has often treated young people as ‘target audiences’, identifying and using ‘credible messengers’, and designing creative digital communication tools to engage them most effectively. Despite the emergence of numerous ‘how-to’ guides and policy briefs, substantial criticisms around the theory, impact and ethics of such approaches remain largely unaddressed.

This Whitehall Report compares two P/CVE programmes in Kenya and Lebanon that independently came to the same conclusion: to counter the multiplicity of factors drawing young people into violent extremism, communications and media tools should be recast to serve the needs of young people, rather than treat them as an audience. This means understanding the perspectives and lived experiences of those young people involved in the programmes. The report describes the programmes’ communications outputs: digital media platforms, news reporting and campaigns led by young people and journalists in areas of Kenya and Lebanon particularly affected by violent extremism.

To provide practicable insights to those designing and implementing P/CVE programmes, the report uses a realist methodology that pays attention to the particulars of what works, for whom and where, by studying the context, mechanisms of change and outcomes of the two programmes. The report finds that mapping the media ecology of the two target locations informed programme activities: examining how young people are represented and the dominant narratives in the media helped to shape, target and prioritise participation. It also finds that media content was secondary to the process which led to the active, voluntary participation of young people. …

  Whitehall Report 4-21. London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies  (RUSI), 2021. 40p.

By Center For Countering Digital Hate

From the Introduction: "Two-thirds of American teenagers use TikTok, and the average viewer spends 80 minutes a day on the application. The app, which is owned by the Chinese company, Bytedance, rapidly delivers a series of short videos to users and has overtaken Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube in the bid for young people's hearts, minds, and screen time. [...] For our study, Center for Countering Digital Hate researchers set up new accounts in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia at the minimum age TikTok allows, 13 years old. These accounts paused briefly on videos about body image and mental health, and liked them. What we found was deeply disturbing. Within 2.6 minutes, TikTok recommended suicide content. Within 8 minutes, TikTok served content related to eating disorders. Every 39 seconds, TikTok recommended videos about body image and mental health to teens. The results are every parent's nightmare: young people's feeds are bombarded with harmful, harrowing content that can have a significant cumulative impact on their understanding of the world around them, and their physical and mental health."

Center for Countering Digital Hate. 2022. 48p.

By Regina G. Lawrence

When police brutality becomes front-page news, it triggers a sudden, intense interaction between the media, the public, and the police. Regina Lawrence ably demonstrates how these news events provide the raw materials for looking at underlying problems in American society. Journalists, policy makers, and the public use such stories to define a problematic situation, and this process of problem definition gives the media a crucial role in our public policy debates.

Lawrence extensively analyzes more than 500 incidents of police use-of-force covered by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times from 1985 to 1994, with additional analysis of more recent incidents such as as the shooting of Amadou Diallo in New York. The incidents include but are not limited to those defined as "police brutality." Lawrence reveals the structural and cultural forces that both shape the news and allow police to define most use-of-force incidents, which occur in far greater numbers than are reported, she says.

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  Lawrence explores the dilemma of obtaining critical media perspectives on policing policies. She examines the factors that made the coverage of the Rodney King beating so significant, particularly after the incident was captured on video. At the same time, she shows how an extraordinary news event involving the police can become a vehicle for marginalized social groups to gain entrance into the media arena.

  In contrasting "event-driven" problem definition with the more thoroughly studied "institutionally driven" news stories, Lawrence's book fills a major gap in media studies. It also offers a broader understanding of the interplay between the criminal justice system and the media in today's world.Description text goes here

Berkeley: Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000. 254p.

By David G. Bolgiano, L. Morgan Banks, III, et al.

A vigorous assessment and commentary on governmental uses of force, whether by civilian law enforcement officers in the United States or by military service members overseas, 'Virtuous Policing' presents strategies to ease rising tensions in citizen-law enforcement relations. The book particularly addresses the growing division between members of the police and citizenry due to a number of factors, including the effects of some press members who are more interested in cultivating sensational stories of 'rogue' cops than in discovering and disseminating facts

Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press [Imprint] Taylor & Francis Group, 2017. 256p.

By Rob C. Mawby

The major areas of research covered in this study of the influence of the media on police work are covered in eight chapters. In chapter 1 a History of Police Image Work From 1829 to 1987 traces the history of image work. Chapter 2 the Professionalizing of Police Image Work Since 1987 discusses the distinguishing features of the most recent phase of police image work. Chapter 3 Police Legitimacy, Communication and the Public Sphere introduces theoretical concerns, and the nature of police communications. Chapter 4 the National Picture: Systems of Police Image Work looks at the terrain of contemporary image work across the police service nationally. Chapter 5 One Force and Its Image provides historical background of the force and outlines the 1984-85 Miners' Strike and the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy. Chapter 6 Press and Public Relationship Officers At Work examines news management and the planning and delivery of set piece promotional events. Chapter 7 Image Work in Routine Policing looks at three areas of practical policing. In the final chapter, Image Work, Police Work and Legitimacy the author considers the extent to which image work pervades contemporary police work and the implications for policing in the context of a highly mediated society. The study concludes that the mass media has played an important role in shaping police work, image work, the legitimization of policing. The media and the police will continue to work together to influence policing and society.

Cullompton, Devon, UK: Willan Publishing, 2002. 226p.

By Tijana Milosevic

Cyberbullying Policies of Social Media Companies. Foreword by Sonia Livingstone. This book investigates regulatory and social pressures that social media companies face in the aftermath of high profile cyberbullying incidents. The author’s research evaluates the policies companies develop to protect themselves and users. This includes interviews with NGO and social media company reps in the US and the EU. In an environment where e-safety is part of the corporate business model, this book unveils the process through which established social media companies receive less government scrutiny than start-ups.

MIT Press (2017) 297 pages.