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66
It is true that Lord Brain's Reports of 1961 and 1965 advocated
the treatment of addicts in special units as voluntary medical and
psychiatric patients but this was before the sudden deterioration
of the drug scene over the past 4 years.
Because deaths from drug addiction are increasing, especially
among young people, there is a move to introduce legislation making
its treatment compulsory. Among the medical and legal professions
there are some misgivings and grave doubts have been
expressed as to the wisdom of such action. Even with the best of
intentions, to deprive a person of his liberty for the purpose of
treatment and yet not be able to assure him of a cure is hardly
likely to prove a satisfactory solution. Indeed, this is the very
essence of a situation which the Mental Health Act of 1959 sought
to remedy regarding the mentally sick.
Inadequate personality, frustration, the urge to experiment, the
attraction of the unknown or the sheer anarchical attitude of a
section of modern youth, all contribute to the habit of drug-taking
and compulsory legislation is clearly not the panacea.
It is still too early to assess the efficacy of the treatment centres
which have been established with government approval at a
number of hospitals. Heroin addicts attending these new government
sponsored centres during 1968 numbered 1,999 but the
"drop-out" rate is high.
Again I must emphasise that neither drug addiction nor
alcoholism appears to be of moment in this Borough at present.
However, we would be seriously negligent if, knowing that these
public health hazards were on the increase in the country at large,
we failed to be on our guard against its spread locally.
Heart Disease
In middle aged patients with ischaemic heart disease it is
common to find raised lipid levels in the blood and evidence incriminating
hyperlipidaemia in the development of arterial lesions is
mounting. Population studies show that the risk of developing
heart disease may be increased by up to five or six times in those
people with high blood cholesterol compared with those having
low levels.
However, even if control of abnormally high concentrations of
lipids in the blood in all affected adults were possible, it would
not eliminate vascular lesions and their consequences. For example,
it is known that fatty streaks are present in the arteries of many
children by the age of 10 years and, advanced atheromatous lesions
reducing the lumen and giving rise to partial or complete stenosis
can occur in males of advanced countries as early as the second
or third decades, usually well before clinical signs are exhibited.