#PUBLICATION: WacSeries: Media Reporting on Substance Abuse: Magnifying or Reducing the Harm

In a nutshell, media reports have a huge impact in building public opinion and influence policy-making processes. The media has been traditionally used as a channel to disseminate messages portraying substance use through a distorted lens. In order to project a more holistic picture of the topic, there is need for a stronger collaboration between relevant stakeholders and media organisations at the local and regional levels. Ideally, messages from mass media campaigns should be guided by a common strategy involving work being done by other stakeholders in the sector.

The reports on tramadol and codeine abuse could have yielded more meaningful and significant impact if they had involved the participation of civil society organisations, health experts, key government agencies and the people most directly impacted: people who use drugs. It is imperative that civil society and community organisations working on drug-related issues are able to engage with the media to ensure informed reportingon these complex and emotive subjects in the future.

Policy makers and Government must conduct further in-depth research and analysis of the situation before drafting its response. Imposing sanctions on persons who use drugs or prohibiting the production or distribution of drugs by adding them to international schedule have been proven inefficient since decades.

A more balanced approach consisting in tightening national and regional restrictions on trade in falsified medicines will be more effective. This will involve reinforcing the control measures at national borders. It is also critical to enforce the current/ existing laws on dispensing and stocking of prescription drugs only. On the other side, traffickers of unauthorised doses or falsified medicines should be punished.

Source: Ane-Loglo, M. & Kpadonou, C. (2018). Media Reporting on Substance Use: Magnifying or Reducing the Harm?, West Africa Civil Society Institute, Accra,
Ghana.