Panopticon? More Like Origamicon

Panopticon? More Like Origamicon

“The sporting editor had also given me $300 dollars in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, seventy five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and a dozen raw amyls.” (Thompson, 4) Through this passage, Hunter S. Thompson clearly portrays what America would be like without the authority of drug enforcement laws and pharmacies. Pharmacies keep an automatic functioning of power as described by Michael Focault in his “Panopticon” theory. I will use the Science Direct Journal and Michael Focault’s Panopticism in “The Ways Of Reading” to substantiate my thesis.

Pharmacies do a lot more than insure an automatic functioning of power; they also insure the drugs are not abused. Pharmacies found at a local grocery store serve as the middle men in a long chain of drug distribution. They insure the safe passage of drugs to the intended customers; insuring drugs are not distributed into the wrong hands such as a drug abusers and drug fiends. Of course, there are always the lucky few who still somehow manage to get their hands on these pharmaceutical wonders. Who would not want to though? Pharmacies are stacked with an unfathomable amount of uppers and downers. A patient with unnecessary pain is prescribed pain killers that are adequate to their pain such as: Oxycontin (oxycodone), Vicodin (hydrocodone), Percocet, Morphine, Dilaudid, and Fetinol patches. Fetinol patches and Dilaudid are rarely handed out these days because they amount an incredible high increasing the risk of addiction. Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors are prescribed to patients diagnosed with deep depression and in some cases anxiety. Celexa (citalopram) and Prozac are a few of the many selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors to choose from. If a patient has deep anxiety issues they’re prescribed anti-anxiety pills. Anti-anxiety pills work faster than SSRI’s because anti-anxiety pills are usually meant for a quicker drug release within the human body. Contrary to Anti-anxiety, SSRI’s are typically used for longer treatment where the effects do not show for almost a month after the initial treatment. Anti-anxiety and pain killers are typically the drug of choice for those who recreationally use these dangerous yet wonderful drugs, mainly because pain killers and anti-anxiety pills kick in substantially faster than anti-depressants (SSRI’s). As you can see, there’s a clear reason why drug enforcement laws are present today.

Pharmaceutical drugs present many dangerous outcomes when used with skewed intentions. One, if a patient becomes dependent on Oxycontin it shoots the patients liver, increasing the chances of liver failure. Two, painkillers can cause physical and mental dependence if wrongfully abused. What does physical and mental dependence mean? Well its simple, it means that patient who is addicted to Oxycontin will have to experience horrid withdrawals. Once the human body becomes dependent and the source of Oxycontin is cut off, the body goes into a state of withdrawal. Soon the entire body aches like a ninety year old person, vomiting becomes a past time, and the body is constantly in pain.

Pharmaceutical distributions and Michael Focault’s panopticism theory integrate the same mechanisms. Pharmacies prevent drug abuse, illegal distribution of medicine, and insure patients receive the correct drug. In essence, pharmacies insure the safe passage of drugs to the intended customers in need of pain medication, antibiotics etc. Without the help of drug distribution regulations established by pharmacies, drugs would be abused every day causing an increase in drug addiction rates.

Michael Focault stated, “Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.” (Focault, 226) Pharmacies induce a sense of un-tangible order and power described in Focault’s passage. In this case, patients in need of pharmaceutical drugs play the role of the inmate. Patients are presented with cautions and warnings about the side effects of the drugs they receive and the “what-not-to-do” with drug instructions, such as “don’t mix this medicine with alcohol” etc. The typical person today will have little to no knowledge of the drugs they induce and receive at their local pharmacy. This is