By MASUDUR RAHMAN

Senior Reporter

“Have you ever seen anyone do heroin?” he asked me as soon as I entered his bedroom.

“Not in person,” I said, thinking of all the movies and the documentary I’ve seen of people shooting up.

“Would it help your article if you saw it in person?” he asked me. If this 21-year-old Oakland University student was exhibiting any emotions, I couldn’t tell, especially underneath his facial hair.

“It might… But I don’t want anyone to shoot up just so I can see it,” I said, almost looking around, wondering if he’s having an addict friend come over.

“Well,” he said, sitting down in the chair near the computer table, which I now notice has a spoon, a small baggie and a bag of needles. His computer screen’s desktop picture is a large ‘Above the Influence’ logo. “I’m in the middle of a relapse, so I was going to do it anyway even if you weren’t here.”

“Oh.” This is unexpected. From our previous communication, I thought that he’s had relapses but that now he’s clean. I guess I misunderstood.

“Are you… going to be able to talk afterward?” I asked him, with mixed feelings. I’m concerned about getting coherent responses in my interview for the article I’m writing for my university’s student newspaper.

“Yeah, I’ll still be myself; I’ll just be in a better mood,” he said. “Unless it’s going to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“It’s not going to make me feel uncomfortable if you’re okay with it,” I said.

He put a small amount of heroin in the spoon and started heating it.

“Do you mind if I take some pictures?” I ask him. “I won’t show your face.”

“Sure. I’m up for anything.”

Reporter’s note: This was the beginning of the first interview I did for a series of articles The Oakland Post is hoping to do about drug and alcohol abuse and addiction in universities, especially Oakland University.

There are several newsroom ethics concerns while doing stories like these. For example, typically people being quoted must be named, because otherwise it takes away from the credibility of the newspaper and the believability of the interviews. But for this story, the top editors and I decided to give him the anonymity he requested, and instead of naming him, will give him a generic description. Will that make you, the readers, doubt the authenticity of this story? It might, and reasonably so. How are you supposed to know we’re not making this up just to make a sensational story? I suppose you just have to have a bit of faith in us.

We are not naming him because we think drug addiction is an important topic, and not naming the source was the only way to tell this story.

But what if he wanted to be named? Would we name him then, even though it may get him in trouble with the university, with the law or future employers? I don’t know. I guess that’s another story and another time.

And what about the users of illicit drugs considered less hard than heroin? Like cocaine? Or marijuana? What about of-age users of legal drugs, like alcohol or cigarettes? What about minors? If we used them as sources for an article, would we grant them anonymity, or would we demand they be named?

I don’t know. I guess we’ll decide when the time comes.

If you are an OU student/faculty/staff member who uses, is addicted to or recovering from illicit drugs or alcohol, and would like to tell your story, please contact us. Our office is in 61 Oakland Center, our office phone number is 248-370-2537, and you can email us at [email protected] (or me at [email protected]).