DRUG VIDEO'S SHOCK TACTICS 'WON'T WORK'

Scenes of a Student's Death Could Backfire

It was shaping up to be a slow week at the Hereford Times. A charity shop
had been redecorated, a woman had her handbag stolen, and the usual mix of
local news and opinion was being assembled for the weekly edition. So when
a 22-minute anti-drugs video produced for the local education authority
arrived, it caught the attention.

A year earlier the paper had run a story appealing for families who had
suffered from drug addiction to contact a local video production company.
The project had been all but forgotten.

But within days the tragic tale of Rachel Whitear's descent into heroin
addiction and her sordid death in a rented room in Exmouth was known to
millions. With pictures of her body reproduced everywhere, the 21-year-old
took her place in a very public gallery, alongside Leah Betts and Lorna Spinks.

They were all pretty, talented young women killed by drugs, and in each
case parents had, despite the pain, sanctioned the use of pictures in a bid
to deter others from following in their footsteps.

But questions are being asked by drug experts and campaigners: Do the shock
tactics help? Or could they even be counter-productive?

No one thought Rachel would become an addict. Her home life was stable, she
had plenty of GCSEs, was bright, sociable and raised funds for charities.
But when, at 19, she was offered her first fix she quickly fell into
addiction. Counselling helped her to kick the habit for a time and at one
point she was clean enough to apply to six universities, finally deciding
to read psychology and sociology at Bath. But soon she became addicted to
drugs again. In May 2000 she died.

'If it can happen to Rachel, it can happen to anyone,' her mother, Pauline
Holcroft, 52, said. 'If showing these pictures prevents one death, it will
be worth it,' said the Daily Mail .

Shock campaigns against drug use are not new. Neither are concerns about
their efficacy. A report to the Teachers Advisory Council on Alcohol and
Drug Education in 1986 criticised such tactics and pointed out they had
failed in other areas.

The 1950s educational film Reefer Madness was intended to shock American
youngsters into avoiding cannabis. Instead, it helped to create the image
of cannabis as cool and desirable and became a cult classic.

In the mid-1980s, the Government responded to a surge in heroin use with a
television and poster campaign featuring a wasted youth with the caption:
'Heroin screws you up.' Dozens of posters went missing as the boy in them
became a teenage pin-up. Within months 'heroin chic' appeared on the catwalks.

Three years ago a video called The Trap featuring real addicts and a staged
overdose was shown to 11-year-olds at 50 primary schools in the Rhondda
Valley, South Wales. The area still has a massive heroin problem.

More recently the Leah Betts poster campaign - featuring her photograph
under the headline 'Sorted. Just one ecstasy tablet killed Leah Betts' -
was quickly hijacked by the pro-ecstasy lobby, who released a rival poster:
'Distorted: You are just as likely to die from eating a bay leaf as from an
ecstasy tablet.'

According to Neil Hunt, lecturer in addictive behaviours at the University
of Kent, a film with images of Leah Betts is so often shown in schools that
some children 'take the mickey out of it'.

The video of Rachel's addiction and death was made by Hereford local
education authority. In addition to graphic pictures of her corpse, it
features interviews with her parents and best friend.

'It makes teachers and parents feel better, but the actual value is highly
questionable,' said Hunt. 'Videos like this allow schools to tick the
"drugs education" box and feel that they have done what they need to do.
Actually talking to schoolchildren about heroin - a drug they are very
unlikely to be exposed to - as opposed to tobacco or alcohol - which they
almost certainly will be - doesn't make sense.'

Harry Shapiro of the agency Drugscope said heroin use was often due to
psychological or social problems that were not going to be addressed by a
short video.

For some, however, the controversy detracts from the real issues.

'At the end of the day, this woman's daughter died,' says Chris Smart, who
made the film. 'After that nothing else matters.'