SNL Heroin Skit Sparks Outrage

A "Saturday Night Live" skit featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus joking about a new fake product, "Heroin AM," aimed to give heroin users more energy, has a sea of viewers outraged.

“I want to use heroin, but I also want to get stuff done," Louis-Dreyfus says in the skit. "That’s why I reach for Heroin AM, the only non-drowsy heroin on the market."

For those who've lost loved ones to the horrors of heroin addiction on Long Island, the fake commercial was anything but funny.

Kings Park mom Linda Ventura lost her son Thomas when he was only 21. Just home from rehab, he was released on March 13, four years ago. "On March 14, my 18-year-old son found him."

Ventura, who now speaks out to keep other young people from the tentacles of drug and alcohol addiction, said the message needs to begin at home. "Parents are the first line of defense," she said. In her son's memory, Ventura created an organization, "Thomas's Hope;" she airs shows on the internet to help raise awareness about addiction.

When she saw Saturday's episode of "Saturday Night Live" Ventura said it's "incomprehensible" to her that the network, NBC, would not "appreciate the grief of families who have lost loved ones to addiction. When they start making fun of diseases such as cancer or heart disease, then I guess it's game on, but for me, I'll boycott 'Saturday Night Live' and all products they could possibly sell. That show is gone for me."

Many in Suffolk County were particularly troubled by the skit, especially on the heels of news last week that the area is number one in New York State for heroin overdoses.

Prevention advocate Kym Laube, executive director of the non-profit organizaton HUGS, Inc., in Westhampton Beach, was deeply disturbed by the skit.

"There's no other medical disease that we would have brought into pop culture in a comedic way. We wouldn't do it with AIDS, childhood cancer, and we wouldn't do it with suicide. So the fact that nobody at NBC even questioned it to a point where it was stopped is just unacceptable, and it speaks directly to the stigma of addiction and how people see it as a self-inflected disease when it is, in fact, a medical disease."

The one thing the skit did do, she said, was to speak to the "ridiculous" nature of pharmaceutical companies, and how " the pharmaceutical companies are one of the largest drug pushers out there."

But, she added, there were many other ways to have had the discussion, with teachable moments, rather than by creating a skit for the television shows.

"We've got to do better than this or we're just going to bury bodies," she said.

To that end, Laube said parents and experts must take a look at where addiction begins, with drinking and marijuana use. Prevention efforts need to begin with those trained in evidenced-based prevention strategies, she said.

Jeffrey Reynolds, president and chief executive officer of the Family and Children's Association in Mineola, also spoke out against the TV show: "I can't image any other disease where it would be okay to turn thousands upon thousands of annual deaths and untold misery into a joke," he said. "So many families have been touched by the disease of addiction and lost loved ones. On Saturday night, they tuned into SNL, perhaps for a bit of levity and laughter, only to find yet another painful reminder that some still don't understand the pain and suffering that accompanies addiction."

Ironically, he said SNL has lost cast members to fatal overdoses. "And if anyone should 'get it,' Lorne Michaels should. Both SNL and Julia Louis-Dreyfus owe families across America an apology and should make this right with a public service announcement that educates and engages their audience about heroin and other drugs."

Did the SNL heroin skit cross the line? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.