Sir, - RTE's Six-One News on October 19th carried a special report on heroin use in the Rathfarnham area of Dublin, on the basis that heroin use is not only the preserve of underprivileged, socially and economically deprived areas, but is increasingly becoming an issue for more affluent, middle-class districts.
As a drug and alcohol education officer with the Mid-Western Health Board, I was concerned with some of the content of this report, in particular the visual message it portrayed. Taking into consideration that the Six-One News boasts a high general audience including children and young people (at whom a lot of drug prevention work is aimed), the image of people preparing and injecting heroin was not only unsuitable but unhelpful. The spectacle of drug-users buying and using drugs served no purpose except to glamorise the activity and to educate the public on the mechanisms of actually injecting and smoking an illegal drug. This was further emphasised by the image of these people smoking cannabis following their heroin use. Research has shown that explicit demonstrations of how to use drugs can increase interest in the behaviour and ultimately in drug experimentation.
I do not believe that this was the intention of RTE, and apart from this section of the report the content was factual and informative. The issue of drug use is both topical and sensitive with a fine line existing between responsible, accurate reporting of the facts and harmful, sensational journalism, which regrettably was crossed on this occasion. - Yours, etc.
Maria Fox,
Drug and Alcohol Education Officer,
Mid-Western Health Board,
O'Connell Street,
Limerick.