opium and the people

introduction
Introduction
The most acute anxieties of the 1960s `drug epidemic' have quietened. Drug stories appear less often, and more
prosaically, in the newspapers. Yet attitudes towards the use of `dangerous drugs', and `narcotics' in particular, remain
restrictive. The legislative control of drugs and public reactions to their use is more stringent than the restrictions on
those other recreational substances, tobacco and alcohol. The Misuse of Drugs Act (1971), the latest of a long line of
`Dangerous Drugs' Acts, continues the practice of control through fines and imprisonment under the aegis of the Home
Office. Since 1968, heroin and cocaine have been available to addicts only through treatment clinics, where doctors
licensed by the Home Office may prescribe.(1) For other `recreational' substances, the system of control is much less
stringent. For alcohol, the equivalent's, are the liquor licensing laws, the duty on whisky and the sale of alcohol in
pubs and supermarkets. For tobacco, they are the health warnings on cigarette packets and the no-smoking carriages in
trains. The contrasts in reaction are instructive.
Regulations and legislation applicable specifically to `dangerous drugs' were not passed until the early decades of the
twentieth century. The 1916 Defence
of the Realm Act regulation 40B dealing with cocaine and opium and the 1920 Dangerous Drugs Act were the first
legislative measures to establish narcotics as a matter of social policy.(2) But it was in the previous century that the
basesof control were laid down, and new and restrictive ways of looking at opium established.
The nature of the drugs(3)
This book is concerned with the factors involved in that process, with the advent of legislative control over opium in
the nineteenth century, with the growth of a view of opium as a `deviant' activity and with the factors which went to
make it so. But first it is necessary to be armed with some basic knowledge of the pharmacological, therapeutic and
addictive properties of opiates and of some other drugs. The paragraphs which follow attempt to compress a lot of the
relevant science into a short space. The aim is not to produce a scientific section of pharmacology, but to deal
specifically with issues which are relevant to an understanding of social reactions and perplexities. And although more
is known about these scientific issues than a century ago, it must of course be bornein mind that current concepts are
no more final than the nineteenth-century ideas which were their predecessors.
A simple classification
To anyone who has no specialized knowledge, the great variety of substances which act on the mind create a rather
bewildering situation. Is every drug different or is there some simple way of grouping these substances? There is in
fact a simple classification which can help to guide one through the seeming complexities there are just four different
basic categories of mind-acting drugs.
1. Opiates. Opiates (or opoids in the American phrase) are drugs of the morphine type, which have the common
property of relieving pain and inducing euphoria. Opium is of importance because of the opiates it contains.
2. Cerebral stimulants. This group includes cocaine, a drug which came into the story during the latter part of the
nineteenth century. Amphetamines are the familiar present-day representative of the stimulants. These drugs cause
excitement and increased mental and physical energy. They can give rise to brief psychotic illness. Although there are
no remarkable physical withdrawal symptoms, the stimulants can be highly addictive.
3. Cerebral depressants. Here can be grouped together a variety of substances which have the common property of
inducing sedation and sleepiness : there may also be disinhibition so that the drug appears to be causing stimulation
and excitement. Alcohol provides a prime example. In the latter part of the nine-teenth century, chloral, a synthetic
depressant, began to enjoy a vogue and gave rise to problems of misuse.
4. "Psychomimeticsubstances, or hallucinogens. Cannabis is probably best placed in this group, although it also has
depressant properties. Mescaline is another member of the group, which became known in England during the
nineteenth century, while LSD is the well-known modern example. Members of this group have the capacity to induce
complex changes in the way the world is perceived and given meaning - experiences which are in short described as
transcendental. Acute psychotic disturbances may also result.
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