Methadone: drug or medicine? / Noor Mayudia Mohd Mothar, Siti Hajar Abd Aziz and Shahril Anuar Abdul Ghalim

Is methadone a form of drug or medicine? Based on this main question, the study investigates the news reports of Malaysia’s local newspapers, Berita Harian and Harian Metro, to see how the Methadone Drug Substitution Therapy (MDST) related issues were being treated in their news reports. The researchers adopted interpretive approach to analyse a sample of 11 news reports on MDST published on these newspapers throughout the year 2009. Five research questions were generated from the samples studied, namely “How does the newspaper report on methadone-related issue?”, “Does the report treat methadone treatment as a cure for sickness?”, “Is there any misconception on the reporting of methadone issues?”, “Does the government care about methadone issues?” and “What were people’s reactions on MDST?”. The findings of this study suggested that methadone has not been reported negatively by the newspapers, but there is a general idea in Berita Harian that the MDST programme has not been fully successful. On the contrary, Harian Metro prefers to give an idea that the MDST is a promising programme for drug addicts to actually lead a normal life. These newspapers too have been treating drug addiction as a sickness and not as a social problem therefore it has portrayed methadone as a medicine and not a type of harmful drug. News reports too were often medically-sound and had highlighted the government’s intention to champion the programme as a main effort to help drug addicts to become productive members of the society. The study found that the newspapers too has treated the public as the antagonist in their reports, and that it is an uphill task to correct their persistent misconception on MDST programme and drug addictions.