ABSTRACT
Toward the end of 1998 The Age, one of Australia’s premier broadsheet newspapers, ran a series of articles on the ‘heroin problem’ in Melbourne. The focus of one story – a sequel to a news item on commercial television the preceding evening – was a specific dealer. What made this entrepreneur newsworthy was that she was a mother. Indeed as both The Age and Channel 10 News were at pains to emphasise, her infant was present during at least one transaction. Cameras portrayed the baby cradled for an instant in the arms of a user-client, as the mother retrieved the product.
