The media has a drug problem, and we need to stage an intervention. From “face-eating cannibals on monkey dust” to people on bath salts “ripping out their scrotum”, newspapers have a dirty habit of making up drug stories.

Over the past century, large sections of the press have acted as campaigners for the War on Drugs, hyping up drug-scare stories and peddling false narratives.

From the “crack babies” hysteria that shook America in the 1980s to the “weed is a gateway drug” theory, media outlets use shock tactics to sell papers. Reports of “zombies” with “superhuman strength” high on “monkey dust” are not only wildly inaccurate, but they dehumanise some of society’s most vulnerable people.

In this episode of The War On Drugs, we debunk some of the media’s biggest drug myths.