Heroin hell their own making‘: construction of heroin users in the Australian press 1992–97

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Abstract
The ACT heroin trial was a proposal to evaluate the efficacy of prescription heroin as a treatment for heroin‐dependent people. The trial was actively debated within the press by proponents and opponents but ultimately did not proceed due to a lack of required political support. Previous research indicates that public perceptions of the nature of drug users can influence the direction of policy responses. This paper analyses the construction of heroin users within press debate about the proposed ACT heroin trial, comparing and contrasting trial proponent and opponent views. The primary constructions of the user embraced models of users as people with health problems who were dying; who were criminals; classic deviance distinctions between us and them; that users posed costs and a threat to society; that users were victims; and discourse about ‘ruined’ selves. Despite attempts by trial proponents to construct the user as an ‘ill us’, the cultural value of abstinence from drug use and the ideology of individualism with its connotations of heroin use as a choice that required punishment rather than help were rarely challenged, reinforcing the view of drug use as a problem of individual morality.