Why SNL’s ‘Heroin A.M’ skit was important public service

Editor’s Note: Ford Vox is a physician specializing in rehabilitation medicine and a journalist. Story highlights Ford Vox: Those calling for boycott of "Saturday Night Live" after Julia Louis-Dreyfus' fake commercial skit showing "Heroin A.M" user are off base He says heroin use is an enormous problem in the United States and that SNL used satire to point out that high-functioning people are abusing opioids Vox: Such comedy is powerful because it's not politically correct CNN — We know Julia Louis-Dreyfus for a particular kind of biting comedy, a realistic absurdism that makes us cringe while we watch. Today, I got a news release from Addiction Care Interventions, a New York chemical dependency treatment center that is advocating a viewer boycott of “Saturday Night Live” over the heroin commercial. In it, the center’s chief executive says the show’s producers “need to hear from the viewing public that medications to combat the effects of drug addiction are a vital part of an addicted person’s treatment, and not anything to poke fun at.” He’s hoping that a boycott will be heard so loudly we will “not again see a skit in such poor taste.” Never mind that the skit didn’t poke fun at a real drug but “Heroin A.M.,” a fictional combination of heroin, caffeine and “a small pile of cocaine.” A Wisconsin sheriff issued his own Sunday-morning news release that called the skit an “unfortunate incident” that the community can survive by using the whole sorry affair “as an opportunity to once again have a conversation about the fight against heroin and the misuse of opiate prescription drugs.” I’ve got news for the sheriff. “Heroin A.M.” did a great job elevating awareness that many seemingly “normal” and high-functioning people are abusing opioids.