Positive Sociology

During the past couple weeks, I've come across shocking stories of people who become ultra violent after ingesting hallucinogens.  These stories are a sharp contrast to the likes of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.  The two stories are something closer to scenes from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. For example, the Internet is filled with stories of Rudy Eugene, a man who was discovered eating another man's face in Miami.  Reports are linking his ultra-violent behavior to "bath salts," a mostly legal synthetic compound that is said to produce a wide array of intense hallucinogenic results in users after ingestion. After being summoned by a fellow motorist, police officers shot and killed Eugene who allegedly growled at officers and continued chewing on the victim's facial flesh until he was shot and killed.  In the media frenzy, Eugene is being called everything from a crazed "zombie" to a cannibal on the Internet. Ronald Poppo (victim) and Rudy Eugene...

The DEA is under fire again.  It's been a couple weeks since they raided a San Diego house connected to a suspected MDMA or ecstasy operation.  Agents reported that they seized somewhere around 18,000 ecstasy pills, guns, and other contraband from the house. Agents made several arrests.  7 other suspects were fingerprinted, processed, and then released to a county jail.  One suspect was released entirely.  Daniel Chong--a 23 year old student at UCSD--was "accidentally" left in his cell for a week. Daniel Chong, UCSD student and suspected Ecstasy distributor Reports by the LA Times show that Chong drank his own urine to survive, and at one point, attempted suicide by breaking his glasses to cut his own wrists. Zimbardo's Prison Experiments I'm not familiar with protocol or the administrative realities of federal agencies like the DEA, but it seems like it would be hard to just "forget" about a detained person from this kind of drug raid?  I...