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rising steeply. Those on 'hard' drugs were located mainly in the
London area although within the past year or two there has been a
noticeable movement of some of these to large provincial cities such
as Birmingham.
Previously, addiction was to be found almost exclusively among
the middle and older age groups, the majority of whom became
dependent as a result of drug therapy, but recent additions to the
'addicted' list, however, were mainly those in their teens and early
twenties.
Official statistics obviously do not reflect the true position for
they cannot cover the illicit use of drugs which appears to be on the
increase especially among the young people. According to Lord
Brain's Interdepartmental Committee Report, this rapid increase in
illicit addiction in the young was largely due to over-prescribing by
some doctors resulting in the excess supply finding its way to a
black market.
In conforming to a normal pattern, today's youth in its advance
to maturity, seeks 'non-conformity' in order to assert its right to
independent thought and action. Because the use of drugs, other
than for the treatment and prevention of illness or disease, is prohibited
by the 'establishment', this is considered by the younger
generation to be a natural and legitimate field for rebellion. Hence its
support, often irresponsible, of the free use of 'soft' drugs and
cannabis in the mistaken belief that they are harmless. There is
reliable evidence that people who have become addicted to 'hard'
drugs have usually passed through the stage of experimenting with
amphetamine barbiturate mixtures obtained illegally under such
pseudonyms as 'Purple Hearts', 'Blues', 'French Blues', 'Black
Bombers', etc. This transition from simple sedatives and stimulants
to the compulsive slavery of heroin and cocaine is all too easy. It is
suspected that such progression is aided and abetted by the 'pushers'
of amphetamines and other 'soft' drugs who are predominantly
heroin addicts relying on the profits from these transactions to buy
supplies of their own drugs.
Paradoxically, efforts by the adolescent to display his independence
by the indiscriminate use of drugs are likely to end in the loss
of those very qualities which he is so earnestly trying to establish.
To justify support for legitimising the use of 'soft' drugs and
cannabis, serious attempts are made to equate the use of modern
stimulant and tranquilliser drugs with that of tobacco and alcohol
(both of which are known 'killers') in the sense that if there is unlimited
freedom in the use of tobacco and alcohol, why not the 'soft'
drugs and cannabis? This is rather like saying that as there are
already two man-eating tigers loose in the community, the introduction
of further potential killers is not to be resisted. Indeed,