A moment to savour: Karl Boughton, a 22-year-old recovering heroin addict and alcoholic from Ballyfermot, sat in a London ballroom, wearing a tuxedo for the first time. Surrounded by tables of journalists and publishers from titles such as the Ob- server, GQ, New Scientist and Sky Magazine, he waited with bated breath as the room fell silent and the words were spoken: ". . . and the winner is - Hyper".
"I just knew we'd win," he says. "Right from the start, there was something special about this project." The project was the production of a new magazine by clients of the Eastern Health Board's drug rehabilitation service, Soilse. And the prize - an award for design innovation under the British-based Total Publishing Awards scheme, held earlier this month.
Selected from over 400 entries, Hyper beat off competition from major British and American publishing houses, knocking Wallpaper magazine from the Time Warner stable into second spot in the design category.
"It was so great just to be acknowledged," says Karl. "All of us suffer from lack of confidence, low self-esteem, insecurities and a lot of them are unfounded. When I came here I never thought I could write a proper article but I've learned we can achieve anything we put our minds to, although I also know that if we don't continue to apply ourselves we will be back using drink and drugs."
His words are echoed by Rachel McClean (20) from St Theresa's Gardens in Dublin's south inner-city. "We never achieved anything in our lives," she says. "Just to see your names in print is a great boost. Then, to win the award. It's a new experience to feel valued like that."
Advancing their own rehabilitation is only one aspect of the project. In producing Hyper, the recovering addicts wanted to bring young people a magazine to which they could relate, a magazine which - without preaching or scaremongering - critically addressed their lifestyles.
The first edition sought to explode some of the myths about heroin and asked how and why young people started taking it. The second edition, published three weeks ago, focused on the issue of paranoia and how drugs bring about panic attacks, aggression, fear and anxiety.
Articles dealing with homelessness, alcoholism and law reform were also featured, as well as book reviews, theatre reviews and cartoons.
This blend of public information campaigning and editorialising was praised by the London judges who found the magazine "genuinely new in terms of outlook and content". In their citation, the judges said: "Not only has Hyper trained a team of young former drug-users to produce a magazine which makes good use of their experiences in tackling drug and health related issues, but it has also resisted the temptation to patronise or use shock tactics."
Six recovering addicts are currently working on the magazine under the direction of editor Stephen Mulkearn, a journalism graduate of DCU. "We approach it as a magazine like any other with the main difference that the journalists write primarily about their own experiences," he says. "That is very beneficial from a rehabilitation point of view, getting them to explore why they were on drugs. But it also helps to counteract a lot of the stuff you hear about drugs in the media. A lot of journalists tend to sensationalise the issue but these people have been through it and their voice is more truthful and real."
The former addicts do most of the writing and photography and have an input in design. The main designer for the first edition, which won the award, was Ed Shipsey, who is based at Arthouse in Temple Bar. An inhouse health board design firm has since taken over this responsibility.
The magazine has a print-run of 10,000 copies, most of which are distributed to EHB drug treatment centres and other clinics in Cork, Galway and Waterford. Its editorial philosophy mirrors that of Soilse, encouraging heroin addicts to adopt a total abstinence approach rather than relying on methadone maintenance.
All involved in Hyper agree that heroin, or any other drug, cannot be viewed in isolation. "You can't expect to be staying off the gear if you're doing alcohol or cannabis. You'll always end up returning to your drug of choice," says Rachel. "I went through methadone for a while but relapsed into heroin."
If any drug should be singled out, they say, it is alcohol. "It's not cannabis but alcohol that's the gateway drug," says Karl. "It f**** up more people's lives that heroin, cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy and all the others put together."
While the magazine aims to give a voice to marginalised youth, it is eager to avoid the "worthy" label. In giving graphic personal testimony of the reality of drug abuse, it has attempted to challenge the traditional approach to drug information campaigning.
"We did a comparison of literature from the UK and Ireland and noticed that in England there is a much greater emphasis on harm reduction," says Karl. "The Irish leaflets say drugs will always harm you or kill you but that is not always the case. Drugs are enjoyable and, whether you like it or not, people are going to take them."
Rachel's sister, Carol McClean (21), adds: "We had no knowledge about heroin, or any of that, when we started drugs. No one sat us down at school and we wouldn't have picked up any of these leaflets. That's why we wanted to create something which would give you the facts but which you'd also want to read."
The recovering addicts are unsure as to whether they would like to pursue careers in journalism. They are just happy to be learning new skills and furthering their reintegration into society. For the next edition, due to be published in September, Carol is planning to interview young mothers suffering from addiction, Rachel to compose a feature on how drugs affects families, and Karl to write a personal account of his own recovery.
