Opium and the People: Opiate Use and Drug Control Policy in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century England

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, opium was widely used as an everyday remedy for common ailments. By the 1920s, it was classified as a 'dangerous drug' and its use was severely restricted. In an examination of the social context of drug taking in Victorian England (morphine, cannabis and cocaine, as well as opium) the book explains this decisive change in attitude. This revised edition analyses how and why restrictive policies were put in place in the early decades of the twentieth century, and how the 'British system' of drug control accommodating both legal and medical controls was first established. It surveys the ways in which that balance has operated for the rest of the century. This study sheds fresh perspectives on the motivations which survive in the formation of current drug policies.