由於青少年施用K他命的比例在這幾年來有明顯上升的現象，多位立法委員再三提案要求將K他命自原本的三級毒品提升為二級，藉此對K他命之施用者處以刑責，進而改善社會秩序與風氣。然而，對於立委們一再地提案， 法務部毒品審議委員會在二年間（2011至2012年）共八次否決了這個提案。針對此一行政與立法部門間的政策緊張，本文以立委們對於K他命之升級案的論述為研究的焦點，指出這些言論雖然是生成於民主轉型之後的政治場域，但卻也表現了民主轉型之後的威權遺緒，本文分析了國、民兩黨對於這些語言的使用之不同。除了在具體個案上的分析之外，本文還試圖透過此一個案了解民主轉型對於公共政策的影響，並對第三代之「道德恐慌」理論進一步討論。本文提出，民主化作為一種文明進程，促成了減少國家暴力使用（去刑化），但也是反文明進程（入刑化）的道德恐慌生成的沃土，提供民主轉型後的威權遺緒發酵的機會。

In Taiwan, ketamine use among the young people has increased in recent years. Some legislators have called for upgrading ketamine use to a more serious criminal offence. These calls have been repeatedly rebuffed – for the eighth time in two years – by the advisory council which sets drug policy. We examined the context in which the demand for reclassification and the harsher punishment of ketamine users has arisen. We draw on the concept of “moral panic” and focused on the nature of the reaction to the problem by a particular group of people (legislators) in 2011 and 2012. Furthermore, we tied the concept of moral panic to Nobert Elias’ arguments concerning the “civilizing processes.” We situated this “short-term” moral panic, which we regarded as a “decivilizing” process, within the longer term “civilizing” process of democratization. In this article, we argued that, in Taiwan, democratization (a civilizing process) has played an important role in fostering the conditions in which moral panics (a decivilizing process) can thrive, and showed that the rhetoric of moral panic – in the ketamine case at least – is heavily inflected by the legacy of authoritarianism.