Deviant Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 22:419–445, 2001 Copyright Ó 2001 Taylor & Francis 0163-9625/01 $12.00 1 .00 the role of presidential rhetoric in the creation of a moral panic: reagan, bush, and the war on drugs James E. Hawdon Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina Although it is known that state initiatives can help produce moral panics, the role policy rhetoric assumes in creating, sustaining, and terminating moral panics has not been theoretically addressed. This article offers a typology of drug policies and illustrates how each is used at varying stages of a moral panic. It is argued that moral panics begin when proactive and punitive statements are used in combination. Moral panics subside when reactive and rehabilitative rhetorical statements are issued concurrently. The argument is empirically tested by analyzing the presidential addresses of the Reagan and Bush administrations for drug-related statements. Regression analysis, analysis of variance, and crosstabular analyses are used to test several hypotheses derived from the theoretical discussion. The empirical evidence supports the theoretical discussion and the constructionist perspective of social problems. By 1986 Americans were convinced that drugs were sweeping the nation like a ‘‘white plague.’’ Yet, based on governmental gures, drug use declined during the 1980s. Between 1979 and 1985 the Received 6 June 2000; accepted 23 November 2000. I thank Rebecca Ewing and Suzanne Carr for their assistance with this manuscript. I also thank J. Scott Brown, Donna Sedgwick, and John Ryan for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Address correspondence to James Hawdon, 123D Brackett Hall, Department of Soci- ology, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634. E-mail: hawdonj@clemson.edu 419