Sending a message: Ecstasy, equasy and the media politics of drug classification

The paper analyzes UK national newspaper coverage of the 2009 debate over reclassifying MDMA (ecstasy) from class A to class B, following a scientific review by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Media accounts contrasted the government's rejection of the recommendation—and the forced apology of ACMD chairman David Nutt for comparing ecstasy's danger to horse-riding—with the authority of scientific evidence, while others portrayed Nutt as out of touch or politically motivated. Using a governmentality approach to risk, the analysis shows that neo-liberal managerialism in UK governmental discourse largely set the media agenda, despite conservatism in drug policy.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In February 2009, the UK government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) published a review of MDMA (ecstasy) which recommended a reclassification from the highest class A to the ‘intermediate category’ class B, on the basis of a review of recent scientific research. This became a matter of news attention alongside a recent journal article by Professor David Nutt, the chairman of the ACMD, in which ecstasy consumption was suggested to be no more dangerous than horse-riding. The home secretary Jacqui Smith rejected the recommendations and Professor Nutt was forced to apologise for making the comparison. Some sections of the media coverage around this topic contrasted the (implicitly irrational) political response to the review with the authority of the scientific evidence it represented, while other media accounts characterised Nutt either as an ‘out of touch’, or ‘immoral’ academic or as having a politically motivated social agenda. In this way, risk issues are played out in, and through, media discourses of science and political authority. This paper analyses the national newspaper coverage of the debate around the risks of ecstasy use and drug classification in the context of the political imperatives within media accounts, and identifies the key discursive strategies employed by those engaged in the media debate. The paper briefly discusses the relevance of a number of risk theories before focusing on the governmentality approach to risk in order to explain how, despite the conservatism inherent in recent drug policy, the neo-liberal managerialism evident in recent UK governmental discourses largely sets the agenda in the media coverage.