The best example of regressive laws in the US that I can think of is the law around Flakka.
Flakka or bath salts as some call them, is a synthetic drug that causes wakefulness, high sex drive, hallucinations, a rush, and euphoria. When taken over a long period of time a person will not be able to sleep and similar to methamphetamine, after enough time of being awake the person will develop extreme paranoia and can turn aggressive.
Truly, there is no difference between Flakka and any of the other stimulants that exist out there. It’s literally one of a thousand options that end up doing the same thing - keeping you awake and making you want to have sex while at the same time you can be hallucinating.
In Florida, a man went berserk and started eating a homeless man's face just like a zombie would. The man was killed and the homeless man was mangled terribly as his face was literally eaten off by this other guy.
The media asked the officer in the Emergency Room what had happened and off the cuff this officer said he suspected the guy was high on bath salts. He said this happens where people trip out on bath salts all the time.
The media then took Flakka to new heights causing a major public scare in the US. They touted headlines like Flakka the Zombie drug and they sported the story of this drug that literally turns you into a zombie and you go around eating people.
The news agencies started pushing the government to do something about this nightmare of Flakka causing people to turn into zombies and kill one another like cannibals. In a hurried set of actions the government passed these extreme laws banning flakka and putting them on the Schedule I drug sheet with heavy penalties for possession and extreme penalties for selling the drug.
As the weeks played out and the story began to die down the toxicology reports from the zombie man showed there was literally no drugs in him at all. He was totally sober when he started eating the other mans face. He had a severe mental illness and he lost it basically.
So, the US has these extreme laws against a drug that is like any other stimulant that is out there and the law was essentially because the media took an off the cuff statement from a cop who took a wild ass guess as to what was wrong with the guy. They took that drug and turned it into a national emergency by calling it a zombie drug that is an epidemic making it sound like there were hoards of zombies out there eating people and after all these laws were passed it turned out the man wasn’t on any drug at all but he had a mental health issue.
Shining example of
- the power of the media
- The power of disinformation
- An example of the media being irresponsible and not doing any fact checking but instead being hungry only for sales - many papers never retracted their initial stories, and they are still searchable on the internet.
- A knee jerk reactionary government that passed laws due to media pressure.
This story is a great example of the issues that plague the American legislative system.
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