British Policies on Opiate Addiction

It is now ten years since the Drug Clinics were set up. In the early 1960's a long established equilibrium broke down, and the number of narcotic addicts known to the Home Office began to rise steeply. The new addicts were predominantly in their early 20's, and drugs were being obtained either from the over-generous prescribing of a handful of doctors or from the spill-over of this prescribing to the black market (Bewley, 1965 (1), 1966 (2)). Heroin was the essential agent of this epidemic, with cocaine as the major ancillary.