Using social media to shame people for using drugs doesn’t help anyone

by Rafe Godfrey, West Virginia Watch
March 19, 2025

Recently, I suffered the misfortune of having to temporarily reactivate my Facebook account, and somehow, during the compulsive scrolling that defines my engagement with that stupefying platform, I came upon a video that caught my attention. Captioned “People just openly smoking drugs,” the clip was posted by Tighe Bullock, a lawyer and developer who has undertaken considerable revitalization efforts on the near West Side, which will not here be called Elk City (a topic for another op-ed).

In the video, Bullock confronts two men he claims had just moments before been smoking something (the implication being fentanyl or another illegal substance) on the steps of a West Side church.

I figured he would have posted this for one of two possible reasons. The first and most likely explanation: to publicly shame them, in the hope of spurring in them the desire to seek help.

The problem is, this not only doesn’t work, it’s often counterproductive. For more than two years now I’ve been a counselor in a medication-assisted treatment program for people battling substance use problems. I’m always curious as to what, for each of my clients, was the thing that cemented their decision to get help. Thus far not a single person has named shame, public or otherwise, as the (or even a) deciding factor.

Beyond my anecdotal experience, research makes it clear that shame and stigma deter people from seeking treatment. As noted in a 2020 study published in the “New England Journal of Medicine,” stigma can push people further into drug use. A 2017 study from “Psychiatry Research” found that, among those in treatment for substance use disorders, “perceived stigma was associated with lower self-esteem, higher depression and anxiety, and poorer sleep” — all of which are things that increase drug-seeking behavior in the first place.

Bullock’s other purpose, and the narrative he advanced in the comments section of his post, could’ve been to use social media to draw attention to issues that Charleston faces.

But wait — haven’t we been there before? Many readers might recall the now-defunct “Charleston Has Had Enough” Facebook group, run by Jerry Waters (aka Harry Hamrick). Apparently having nothing better to do, Waters posted prolifically, taking pictures of unhoused people and people presumably under the influence of drugs or alcohol, sleeping on benches or on the street. 

Ostensibly started to raise awareness of the problems of drug abuse and increasing rates of homelessness — of which Charlestonians were already keenly aware — the group’s real purpose was to shame, mock, debase and humiliate unhoused people and people who use drugs. It was, in essence, a hate group. Perusing the comments, I was struck by the loathing for the subjects of Waters’ posts, and the almost incandescent vitriol and sanctimoniousness of the commenters.

Waters’ group accomplished little besides providing a convenient forum for fomenting greater hatred for and fear of an already vulnerable and scorned population.

To his credit, Bullock doesn’t project the outright malice and contempt that Waters and his followers did. As someone who’s spent most of his life on the West Side, I see Elk City (including the name itself) largely as a brazen and ongoing attempt at gentrification, but I’m not against the idea of businesses thriving there. I’ve spent money in many of those businesses and I love seeing people out and about in the area.

Bullock’s post, however, stuck out to me partly due to the nature of the West Side business he owns and operates: a distillery. I’m far from being a teetotaler, but you have to appreciate the irony — the man publicly shaming people for drug use is engaged in the manufacture, promotion and sale of one of the most destructive and addictive drugs known.

Much like fentanyl, heroin or meth, the hard liquor Bullock sells is a highly refined and extremely potent and dangerous drug. That’s not hyperbole. Alcohol is now classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a Group 1 carcinogen, alongside such delightful substances as arsenic, benzene and formaldehyde. 

A 2020 study published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research estimated that 18.5% of all emergency room visits in the U.S. were directly or indirectly related to alcohol use. Likewise, numerous studies have found alcohol to be as harmful as, or more harmful than, any illegal drug due to its widespread use, health impacts and social harm.

But Bullock, in peddling a legal drug, feels justified in posting videos publicly shaming those who use the wrong drugs and pretending that this virtue signaling, this high-horse moralizing, qualifies as doing something.

In another post, lamenting “theft and crime” on the near West Side, Bullock said, “This is becoming a strange city, not the one I grew up in.”

Homelessness, which is often inexorably intertwined with addiction, increased across the U.S. by nearly 20% in a single year, from 2023 to 2024. Charleston is the city Bullock — and I, too — grew up in, and its problems aren’t unique. If Bullock (or others) truly want to help, they could volunteer at and/or donate to a soup kitchen or shelter. They could advocate for housing-first policies, rent control, supervised use sites and medication-assisted treatment programs. And they could simply talk to people — with empathy, and without the camera rolling.

But filming struggling people at their lowest and posting it on social media doesn’t produce anything positive or help anyone. It’s ugly, malicious and cruel, and those who do it deserve the public shame they so readily heap upon those who already bear more of it than most of us can imagine.

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

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