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Crisis and Opportunity in Drug Policy: Changing the Direction of British Drug Services in the 1980s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

Alex Mold  and
Virginia Berridge
Alex Mold
Affiliation:
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine University of London
Virginia Berridge
Affiliation:
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine University of London
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Extract

During the 1980s illegal drug use in Britain appeared to be increasing at an alarming rate and spreading across the country on an unprecedented scale. An apparent growth in the use of heroin caused particular concern: the number of known heroin addicts rose from just over two thousand in 1977 to more than ten thousand by 1987. Moreover, heroin use was being reported in urban areas throughout the country. This was in contrast to previous decades, when it was thought that drug use was largely confined to London. By 1985 the Conservative government was able to assert that “the misuse of drugs is one of the most worrying problems facing our society today.” Growing fears about drug use prompted a flurry of activity from both central and local government, from law enforcement bodies, voluntary organizations, and health professionals.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 19 , Issue 1: Special Issue: New Perspectives on Public Health Policy , January 2007 , pp. 29 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 2007

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References

Notes

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50. Interview conducted by authors and key civil servant, 2 May 2006.

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54. MacGregor et al., Drug Services in England.

55. Interview conducted by authors with Dr. Dorothy Black, 2 May 2006.

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60. Interview between authors and senior civil servant.

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63. MacGregor et al., Drug Services in England, 70.

64. Ibid., 28.

65. To some extent DDUs did combine social and medical approaches by aiming to treat and control the drug problem. See Mold, “The ‘British System.’”

66. See, for example, Stimson, “British Drug Policies in the 1980s.”

67. For an analysis of this, see ibid. For the reports, see Ministry of Health, Drug Addiction, and ACMD, Treatment and Rehabilitation.

68. Interview conducted by authors with senior civil servant.

69. For a case study of the different approaches adopted at this time by some regional psychiatrists, see J. Strang, “A Model Service: Turning the Generalist on to Drugs,” in S. MacGregor, ed., Drugs and British Society, 143–69.

70. MacGregor et al., Drug Services in England, 45.

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74. TNA MH 154/430, “Heroin Addiction: London Boroughs Association”; working party reports on rehabilitation, 1968–74.

75. ACMD, Treatment and Rehabilitation, 77.

76. DOHA (Department of Health Archive, Nelson, Lancashire) OCG/1/1/3, letter from DHSS to all Regional Health Authorities regarding Treatment and Rehabilitation report of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD); Central Funding Initiative, (HN (83) 13 LASSAL (83) 1), 25 April 1983, 1.

77. DHSS evidence of House of Commons Social Services Committee, 170.

78. Interview conducted by authors with senior civil servant.

79. Ibid.

80. MacGregor et al., Drug Services in England, 71–74.

81. House of Commons Social Services Committee, The Misuse of Drugs, liii, xlvii.

82. Interview between authors and Susanne MacGregor.

83. DOHA, JR/01980565/V0001A, paper for discussion at drugs client team meeting on research project on CFI, 31 October 1985.

84. DOHA, JR/01980565/V0001A, letter from Anne Kauder, Office of the Chief Scientist, DHSS to Susanne MacGregor, 17 January 1986.

85. DOHA, JR/01980565/V0001A, paper for discussion at drugs client team meeting on research project on CFI, 31 October 1985.

86. N. Black, “The NHS Research and Development Programme: The First Five Years, 1991–6,” seminar paper at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 21 January 1997.

87. On urban initiatives, see MacGregor and Pimlott, “Action and Inaction in the Cities.”

88. DOHA, DAC/0007/V0004, note on Central Initiatives by John H. James, 30 April 1986; DOHA, DAC/0026/V001, memorandum from D. C. Nye to Mr. Alderman, Miss Davies, Mr. Hillier, Mr. Lutterloch, Mr. Pagan, and Mr. Woolley, regarding new initiatives, 14 December 1983.

89. DOHA, DAC/0007/V0004, note on Central Initiatives by John H. James, 30 April 1986.

90. On changes in the welfare state in this period, see Lowe, The Welfare State, 317–27.

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