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Professionalization and narcotics: the medical and pharmaceutical professions and British narcotic use 1868–1926

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Virginia Berridge*
Affiliation:
Addiction Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr V. Berridge, Addiction Research Unit, 101 Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF.

Synopsis

This paper analyses the influence of medical professional organization on the formation of attitudes and policies towards narcotics in England. Restrictions on sale were one corollary, and the extension of medical control helped delineate a hypodermic morphine problem and disease theories of ‘inebriety’. In the period 1916–26 the Home Office attempted to impose a penal and nonprofessional policy. The 1926 Rolleston Report marked a compromise between medical professionalism and public policy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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