WHY SHOULD WE CARE? SHE'S JUST A JUNKIE

Channel 10's filming of a woman selling heroin shows our disdain for
drug users.

A YOUNG woman was pilloried on Wednesday night when Channel 10 news
broadcast pictures it had secretly filmed of her apparently selling
heroin on a St Kilda street. Setting the woman apart from the hundreds
of other small-time dealers fuelling their habits on Melbourne street
corners, was the fact that she carried a baby on her hip.

The newsmen who decided to conduct a covert surveillance of the woman
reasoned that she was placing her child at risk by keeping it close as
she apparently engaged in criminal activities. Behind their stated
concern for the child's welfare lurked a moral tone and a clear
message: this woman is a bad mother.

Clearly, the woman's behavior was not desirable. But how much worse
was it than that of a belligerent drunken father returning home from
the pub to his young family? Or a Commodore-driving mother who
recklessly speeds through city streets with her toddler strapped into
a back seat?

The key difference is our lack of sympathy for those caught up in the
heroin trade. Their plight is of their own making, society says: these
people are rotten.

The news footage was duly shown to child protection workers, who in
turn applied to the Children's Court to remove the nine-month-old
child from its parents care. The magistrate who heard the case refused
the Department of Human Services application, and instead ordered the
parents to maintain contact with protection workers until Monday, when
the case will return to court.

This woman was not an isolated case. She is not the only young
Melbourne mother selling heroin, and neither she nor her baby deserved
to be singled out and identified on a news bulletin,

Experienced drug rehabilitation workers tell us that, tragically,
there are plenty of mothers, and fathers, on the streets trading small
amounts of heroin to support their habits. This does not mean they are
necessarily worse parents than others.

It is not uncommon for Children's Court magistrates to refuse
applications by child protection workers to remove children from
heroin-addicted parents. The magistrates' decisions acknowledge that
the difference between a "good" and a "bad" parent hinges on much
bigger questions than whether one has a drug addiction.

As Bernie Geary from Jesuit Social Services points out, if the
community is going to start removing children from substance abusers,
it would be best to start with the children of alcohol abusers. They
are far more likely to pose a risk of violence and neglect to their
children.

What set this woman apart from others was the misfortune of being
captured by a hidden television camera. But if the news organisation
really wanted to expose some of the demons behind this story, it
should have trained its cameras on the politicians who cling
stubbornly to their prohibition model of dealing with drug addicts.

Despite all the evidence and advice provided by workers with long
experience in treating drug users, they persist in criminalising the
behavior rather than regarding it as a health problem. Addicts are
sent to court rather than rushed into treatment.

So long as this remains the model of choice, news crews will continue
to be able to set up hidden cameras to capture pictures of mothers
selling, and possibly even shooting up heroin, as their babies gurgle
nearby.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady