Heroin Addiction and Drug Policy

Part I: The problem; The early years of the "British System" in practice; Drug trends since 1968; Flexible hierarchies and dynamic disorder - the trading and distribution of illicit heroin in Britain and Europe, 1970-90; Drugs and adolescence; Use of public health indicators of the extent and nature of drug problems during the 1970s and 1980s; Women drug misusers: a case for special consideration; The arrival of HIV; Local and regional variations in drug misuse: the British heroin epidemic of the 1980s; Chasing the dragon: the development of heroin smoking in the United Kingdom; Use of illegal drugs in Northern Ireland; Part II: Clinical response; The fall and rise of the general practitioner; The creation of the clinics: clinical demand and the formation of policy; Drug clinics in the 1970s; Prescribing heroin and other injectable drugs; The introduction of community drug teams across the UK; The development of the Voluntary Sector: no further need for pioneers?; The power behind the practice: drug control; and harm minimization in inter-agency and criminal law contexts; Changes in therapeutic communities in the UK; Narcotics Anonymous (NA) in Britain; Minimizing harm from drug use; Part III: Other responses; Promoting new services: the Central Funding Initiative and other mechanisms; Notification and the Home Office; The growth of information. The development of Britain's national Drug Misuse Information Resource; Media- and school-based approaches to drug education; HIV and drugs services - the challenge of change; The relationship between the State and local practice in the development of national policy on drugs; The "British System": visionary anticipation or masterly inactivity?.