Drugs, Race, and Moral Panic
Discussion Questions
- How would you describe the tone of Murphy’s writing?
- In what ways did ideas of race shape Murhpy’s attitudes toward drug use?
- Why does Murphy describe the process of smoking opium in such vivid detail?
- What does Prkachin’s “ground level” analysis of the enforcement of Canada’s drug law in northern BC reveal about the policy?
- What caused the emergence of a moral panic concerning drug use in rural and northern BC in the early 1920s?
- What factors drove the development of Canada’s drug prohibition law?
- Why did reformers become more concerned about drug use in the 1920s?
- What role did print media play in the development of Canada’s anti-drug policies?
