It was interesting to watch an episode of 48 hours from so long ago, and still see many of the same arguments there as are being argued today. Chiricos' moral panic was very apparent in this episode, with everyone interviewed stating that there is a very sudden increase in drug use over the past year. While it is not argued that drugs have been in the U.S. for many years, this episode paints a picture that not too long ago, the U.S. was a utopia, a near perfect place where drug use just didn't happen, kids simply went out dancing and drinking soda pop. Chiricos even admits that drug use has been a serious problem, but for many years, not a sudden increase. I find it slightly appalling, at least to my scientific method sense, that they investigated for just two days (I know, the title of the show), dealers they interviewed were almost exclusively black, families were mostly white, and people overdosing were again, almost exclusively black. This seems to coincide with Chiricos' theory about mostly black criminals, and mostly white victims. The black criminal drug dealers seduce their white children into drugs, and they are the victims in this epidemic. These white victims seem to be middle to upper class, discussing how they need to play golf when their children are at school, not after, and how the maids cannot raise their children.
48 Hours quoted numbers that just aren't able to be known, such as exactly how many users there are in the U.S., and how many people have tried drugs. While we can estimate based on population and drug offenders, there is simply too many variables to be known. While they did show some white people who were drug users, most of what they said consisted of how they didn't see it coming, they seemed like good people. I also find it interesting that they interviewed almost no other ethnicities. For Chiricos, they did encourage the thought that cocaine use was spiraling out of control, when it is known that it in fact decreased after 1985 (p. 115). In order to boost their drug usage numbers, they included any type of drug at all, including marijuana, which was what most of the younger population admitted to using, rather than cocaine. 48 Hours used this data to distort the real numbers, exactly what Chiricos described.
48 Hours seems to have manipulated every scene, from the background noise (always an ambulance or cop car with sirens going by), to how many times kids have tried drugs, to empty vials that had crack in them turning up in schoolyards, to the idea that anyone standing on the street is selling. This episode is a prime example of moral panic, right in the years that Chirico discussed.
