I think we all know what a scapegoat is – a person or group of people who bear the blame for others. Often people who use or abuse drugs are scapegoated. Drug users/abusers are often seen as blight on otherwise purportedly perfect society. They are seen as the cause of all the community’s problems as opposed to a symptom of underlying, systemic problems. I’ve seen this in my own life. There’s a local Facebook page, and people there continually rail against drug users citing drugs as the problems in this county – crime, unemployment, etc. In fact we even see this scapegoating on an even larger scale. In the wake of 9/11 President George W Bush even made statements that people who use drugs support the war on terror! According to Bush, “If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terrorism.” So now drug users are material supporters of terrorism. Talk about a scapegoat! So David Gornoski is going to join us to talk about the underlying anthropological roots of scapegoating.
Full show notes can be found at www.cannabishealsme.com/83