I do not remember a bizarre quirk of local news coverage on previous drug epidemics. As a whole, it is the Meth Panic of the oughts, the Opioid Epidemic of the tens, and now the Fentanyl Crisis of the twenties. I am somewhat needing to slide in that in the teens a former resident of the New England states, describing the drug epidemics there, said that he was surprised by how much Meth lurks about here, so some things never disappear even as one drug overtakes the others for dominance and media harping.

And maybe it is the manner in which I am gathering media that leads to note this quirk of happenings — prevalent in the past, but I am not seeing YouTube clips pass by me, and I was not sitting in for local broadcast news. But what I seem to be seeing is an action faction news that reports on which corner right then is the drug hotspot. And it works. The corner is cleaned out as the drug dealers and users hop over four blocks. So news story — residents and businesses are harping on the presence here. And again, maybe spurred by this news coverage, maybe just a parallel — and I sure hope it is the latter — the police chase everyone off — over four blocks, and we are running around in circles.

I am not a stickler on everything being “root causes”. There is much value in quality of life concerns where drug dealing fades away from your or my public purview and you can walk by in peace. Not everything is superficial. This chasing around in circles for an Action Faction News just might just be, though.

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