A moral panic is fear or anxiety within society surrounding a taboo subject such as drug abuse or underage sex; it is often fueled by a media frenzy following a tragedy or new founded research surrounding the initial subject. Matthew Wood states that,'Moral panics can occur both as novel events, or events which have been in existence within society for a long time and have suddenly become an issue of importance and concern.' (www.aber.ac.uk/media/students/mtw9403.html, accessed 15/11/07)For instance in this assignment I will focus on the case of Leah Betts, an eighteen year old girl who died after taking the drug ecstasy in 1995. Thus proving Matthew Wood's statement, as although ecstasy had been in our society and taken regularly by some for the previous 20 years, her death caused society to become concerned for other members of the younger generation and brought the use of class A drugs back into the spotlight.Moral panics are not a new concept to our society and more specifically drug-related panics have been around for the last one hundred years. There was much concern over the use of LSD, marijuana and acid in the 1950's and 1960's following a sudden advance in rock 'n' roll music in the fifties and the subculture surrounding hippies and Hollywood in the sixties.The texts in which I have chosen to analyse are the 2002 film '24 Hour Party People' directed by Michael Winterbottom and the 1999 film 'Human Traffic', directed by Justin Kerrigan. Both these films demonstrate the particular socio-historical time period in which I have chosen to focus, mainly club culture, rave culture and the urban use of drugs including ecstasy.'24 Hour Party People' is the basis for which this culture transgressed across the country and indeed the world, where as 'Human Traffic' focuses on the lives of five friends and their weekend of drug taking, parties and their relationships with one another, their respective partners and their parents. Both films were produced after the death of Leah Betts, however '24 Hour Party People' is a biopic, set between the 1970's and 1990's, during the original ecstasy escapade.Leah Betts was eighteen years old when she died from taking one ecstasy tablet during a night out in Essex. The media attached themselves to this tragedy and fueled the panic that already surrounded drug use in Britain. Stanley Cohen adopts this theory in the following statement;'The student of moral enterprise cannot but pay particular attention to the role of the mass media in defining and shaping social problems. The media have long operated as agents of moral indignations in their own right.' (Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The creation of Mods and Rockers, 1972:7)The media adapt and control a story of this nature to their own advantage to fuel more scandal, and control representations of youth. If there was no attention to these tragedies then in many cases the moral panics would have nothing to feed off in the beginning.Although this was not the first case of a youth dying from taking ecstasy in Britain, the media attention combined with her parents outrage and grief spiraled the incident into a nationwide moral panic. Teenagers around the country would come home from school, or after a night out and be quizzed by parents who were worried they had fallen into the wrong crowd at school or had been peer pressured into taking the class A drugs which seem so controversial yet increasingly popular with members of the younger generation, ironically often as a form of rebellion from their overbearing parents. I myself have listened to my parents talk at me, highlighting some of the issues with the 'youth of today' even though I never showed an interest in getting involved with 'those groups of people' at school or in wider society. Leah's tragic story has been through many phases over the past eight years, although the initial news outbreaks told us that one ecstasy had immediately led to her death, it later became apparent that infact this was the fourth time she has consumed ecstasy while on a night out, and it was water intoxication that was the cause of death and not the single ecstasy tablet. However to the national press and newspapers, this wasn't the story they wanted to tell, and so when the final verdict on Leah's death was announced, in traditional 'red top' media spin it only made a small corner of the middle of the tabloids.The 1980's saw a change in popular culture, as the young began to favour the synthetic, electronic dance music instead of the punk and rock music which dominated the decades prior. With this new dance culture, came the more prominent use of ecstasy, a drug associated with this culture for its reputed ability to prolong and sustain the user's experience when in a nightclub.The film '24 hour party people', made in 2002 but set around the 1970's until the 1990's, when 'Acid House' and ecstasy were at their peak reflects a time when it was bands such as the Happy Mondays that indirectly promoted these drugs to the youth market. Sarah Thornton states;'As a result, 'moral panic' has become a routine way of marketing popular music to youth.' (Sarah Thornton, Club Culture: Music, Media and Subculture Capital, 1995: 120)This theory can be applied to drug culture, as the music surrounding the rave scene was marketed due to the moral panics associated with their drug taking. But at the same time the youth who admired and followed the bands of this time could be persuaded to partake in their counterpart's activities.The film is set around the Manchester music scene, and although is one of distinct precedence now, at the time similar events could be seen though- out the country. The film is focused on the music but it also gives us an in-depth look into the lifestyles of some of the icons of the time (and some which have transgressed into present day icons) demonstrating how the youth of those decades could contract similar habits, and make rave and drug culture thrive.Mark 'Bez' Berry, an integral figure who can possibly lay claim to the reason the Happy Monday's success skyrocketed, is portrayed in the film as the drug ambassador, when the band is casually relaxing around a bar, he says, 'Can I offer anyone the best drug experience they've ever had?', Steve Coogans narration describes him as the chemist, with his favourite chemical being Ecstasy.An extract from an interview with the Happy Mondays in November 1988 serves to reinforce this image of the band and the youth market to which they appealed. Shaun Ryder says, tongue firmly in cheek;'Happy Mondays have a reputation as a drugs band. It's a subject to broach carefully, but it has to be brought up. "I don't take drugs. I'm totally against self-abuse of any kind. I don't even smoke ciggies." Shaun sits back. There's a moments silence and then the rest of the band collapse into fits of laughter.' (Stuart Maconie, NME Magazine Interview with the Happy Mondays, 19th November 1988:16)The band were the heroes of the young generation at the time, they wanted to follow their example and imitate their role models. This contributed to a surge in ecstasy in the late 1980's.Although the film '24 Hour Party People' does not demonstrate to us a specific fear of moral panic surrounding ecstasy, it is a prominent subplot through-out the film, so much so that the tagline shown on promotion artwork nationwide was 'Share the Ecstasy', a double entendre for sharing the excitement around the music scene of the time, but also sharing the drug that was in widespread use. The film is a firm basis for any understanding of society in that era when ecstasy really began to influx into the streets and clubs of Britain.A later scene in the film shows us that ecstasy however rife through the Hacienda was a mere stepping stone onto other more extreme moral panics that lay ahead. The scene depicts images of the Hacienda nightclub, ecstasy and drug dealers with plenty of money made from selling drugs to the population of the 'Madchester' scene, the narration, again by Steve Coogan (playing Tony Wilson-head of Factory Records and emissary of the movement) talks the audience through the vicious circle of the unknowing contributors to the demise of the Hacienda. Drug dealers would push ecstasy through-out many club nights and gigs at the Hacienda, consequently meaning that the users would not be purchasing alcoholic drinks from the bar, and so Factory lost out. The drug dealers were the ones to benefit from the club goers seemingly insatiable thirst for ecstasy and came back week upon week with more drugs and eventually brought gun crime inside the Hacienda doors. This then inevitably led to the closure of the nightclub, after a fatal shooting and too many near misses, setting in motion much negative publicity surrounding the youth market and their particular habits of the weekend. This growing wave of public opinion pushed further the closure of the Hacienda, stripping the youth of Manchester and many neighbouring areas of their escapism from the suppressive government and will enforcers.The government's public image at this time was at an all time low, particularly among the youth who saw Thatcherites as trying to stifle their weekend activities. An extract from an article in the Guardian newspaper on January 16th 2004 demonstrates this;'Then, in 1988, during what became known as the second summer of love, ecstasy seemed to have found its spiritual home in a flagging Thatcher's Britain. The nation's youngsters began to congregate in their thousands in fields and warehouses. In acid house they had their music, in fluorescent T-shirts and smileys they had their fashion, and in ecstasy, at L25 a pill, they had their drug.' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1124163,00.html Accessed 08/12/2007)The reference in this extract to a flagging Thatcher's Britain is poignant to the historical context due to the youth reveling in the seeming demise of the country under the iron grip of the Iron Lady. The economy was in crisis and government institutions were being sold off contributing to the low moral of society, however through-out times of despair the youth seemed to thrive. They were past feelings of negativity and had moved on into a phase of euphoria fueled by ecstasy. MDMA has been produced since around 1914, and coming through Britain for just under one hundred years, however it was the summer of 1987 that first saw the widespread use of the drug. It is often referred to as a 'weekend' drug by its advocates because the users will only take ecstasy when out on a Friday or Saturday night, rather than keep it in constant use.This particular view of ecstasy is best illustrated in the 1999 film 'Human Traffic'. Although the film demonstrates the perceived positive points to taking ecstasy, and does not necessary reflect on a moral panic, unlike fellow British film 'Trainspotting', for example, the characters do not have to face the consequences of their drug taking - demonstrated by paranoia, hallucinations and lack of logical thought - and instead seem to benefit from their weekend of clubbing, and getting 'wrecked'. A scene at the start of the characters weekend demonstrates the drug and dance cultures philosophy on what is ahead and the referenced weekend drug, Jip states;'The weekend has landed all that exists now is clubs, drugs, pubs and parties I've got 48 hours off from the world, man I'm gonna blow steam out of my head like a screaming kettle. I'm gonna talk codshit to strangers all night. I'm gonna lose the plot on the dance floor the free radicals inside me are freaking man! Tonight I'm Jip Travolta, I'm Peter Popper I'm going to never never land with my chosen family, man we're going to get more spaced out than Neil Armstrong ever did, anything could happen tonight, you know? This could be the best night of my life! I've got 73 quid in my back burner I'm gonna wax the lot, man! The milky bars are on me! Yeah!'It does on the other hand portray the parent's view of the drug, and this is seen in one of the later scenes, where the character Moff is having Sunday lunch with his family in an idyllic country setting. His father is reading the newspaper and in particularly a story about a youth who has died from ecstasy, he says 'another kid dead of ecstasy this week, I don't know what possesses them to take it in the first place.' We can clearly see Moff reeling at this statement as he himself is on the 'come-down' from taking copious amounts of drugs the night before. His mother then ironically states, 'Some children just don't have the correct up-bringing, their parents must neglect them and they turn to drugs as an escape,' cross back to Moff now looking quite bemused by this comment. His Grandmother then joins the conversation by saying, 'no discipline, no morality, no respect', his father then adding 'I just don't understand the youth of today', at this point Moff proceeds to put his head in his hands. These three people are two generations above him and presumably the audience watching the film, their comments are seen as the typical media fueled opinions of adults who don't understand their children's way of life, and infact demonstrate the exact feelings which lead to the experimenting with drugs in the first place and subsequently a moral panic. Moff not standing for any more of what he believes to be total misunderstanding of his lifestyle stands up and acclaims;'Yeah, we're just some happy fucking sitcom, aren't we? Perfect life, perfect family perfect fucking dining table, well give yourself a round of applause, please, I swear sometimes we're living on different planets because there is no fucking way of communicating with you all, who the fuck are you people anyway, who the fuck are you!'The interaction seen here between family and the younger generation is a typical scenario likely replicated throughout homes up and down the country; there has always been a struggle for power between the older and younger generations due to the misunderstandings of their lifestyle. However this has often been misconceived as is explained in the following;While working class terrace sub-culture indulging in casual drug- taking on a scale not seen since their parents did it twenty years before' (Steve Redhead, Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in contemporary youth culture, 1993: )Although moral panics arise from older generation's concern for the younger population, it is infact regrettable that many of the youth of today are merely repeating the generations before them. It does appear that the drug may change through the decades but the panic that occurs across society remains the same.This is also demonstrated in 'Human Traffic' when the two female characters Lulu and Nina, are interviewed by a news crew whilst out getting 'wrecked' in the nightclub. They clearly mock the news reporter who is likely to be a similar age to their parents, and another reminder of the elder establishment they seek to rebel against.Interviewer: Do you take Ecstasy? Lulu: No, No, well we use to, but now we just jack up heroin and float around the club. Interviewer: You take Heroin? Lulu: Well we never use to but then we saw Trainspotting and that just made us want to do it...We just seem to be so impressionable. Nina: Well it's the youth of today you see, they need older people to show them how to live. Lulu: See we learn from their mistakes, because they've been there before. Look at Jimi Hendrix, and Elvis.Of course, the audience knows that this is all fictional, and the girls are demonstrating a point, and at the same time mocking their British rival. The intertextuality is also a direct reference to the older generations view point, as when 'Trainspotting' was released in 1996, many of its critics believed it was portraying a negative way of life to the niche market it was aimed at. There was much concern from parents that it might promote the use of heroin and other class A drugs to their children. This scene in the film also directly relates to the extract from Steve Redhead cited above, the older generations may fuel the moral panics surrounding youth, but forget that many of the youth try to recreate the decades gone before them, particularly the 60's which were seen as a period of great liberation and experimentation, and ironically the period in which many parents today were young themselves. Parents are also prone to be very forgetful on how they or their peers may have lived in the 60's and 70's when drug abuse was high, through LSD, Acid and Marijuana.On the whole the texts I have analysed give a balanced depiction of the moral panics surrounding ecstasy. 'Human Traffic' does not conceal the fact that the way of life demonstrated through the characters is necessarily the same attitude, opinions and actions of every member of that generation, however it does aid the parental audience in a mild understanding of dealings of the youth of the time. It portrays all sides to the ecstasy argument, from the user's perspective but also does not discredit the older generation's state-taught opinions either. '24 Hour Party People' lays the foundation for the audience's comprehension on how moral panics such as the Leah Betts case can occur. It perceives ecstasy and the culture around it as some what 'seedy'. Although we can empathise that at this time, drug culture and the surrounding factors appeared to be a liberating revolution, in hindsight, underground raves, inebriated dancers and fatal incidents are far from the now manipulated rose tinted views of euphoric revelers. As drug use will continue to carry on through our society so too will the respective media fueled moral panics that surround even the most mundane situations
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