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80
Researches in colleges and universities suggest that 34% of
students in these establishments are casual users of cannabis.
Although it is the contention of some experts that the "drug"
situation has become more or less stabilised, cases known by the
Home Office to be receiving narcotic drugs on prescription at the
end of 1971 was 1,580, an increase of 10.5% over the figure for
the previous year. Again, this is unlikely to portray the true
position for the number of persons indicted for drug offences
continues to rise, the current total being 10,844 compared with
8,800, the figure for 1970.
In the London area where the situation is most acute, it would
seem that persons receiving "in-patient" treatment (now fluctuating
between 50 and 80) is declining whilst those undertaking
"out-patient" therapy (varying between 900 and 1,000) is increasing.
Two Greenwich residents, one an "in-patient" and one an
"out-patient" were officially notified as being under treatment at
the end of 1971.
Because heroin, morphine and synthetic opiates have been
known to us for some considerable time we can say with some
accuracy that the death rate in addicts to these drugs is 1 in 10
per year irrespective of age. Convictions for possessing heroin
rose from 153 in 1970 to 433 in the current year.
Knowledge of the effects of cannabis is somewhat more vague
although we are aware that it blunts concentration and shortterm
memory and affects mood, sense of time and intensifies
sensory perception. Cannabis affects the liver's ability to metabolise
drugs and the more extended its use the more common and
striking the effects become and there is accumulating evidence to
the effect that a high intake leads to prolonged if not permanent
damage to the nervous system. With a total of 7,520, convictions
concerning cannabis during 1970 showed an increase of almost
60% over the figure for 1969 and are still rising.
As the most notorious hallucinogen, L.S.D. is, at present, the
most dangerous. With limited laboratory facilities and a little skill
it is relatively easy to produce which means that its strength and
purity become questionable. This gives rise to serious overdoses
leading, in many instances, to very tragic consequences. At 757,
convictions involving L.S.D. during 1970 were almost 5 times as
high as the 1969 figure.
It would be fatuous to think that the drug problem is curable.
Centuries of effort on the part of Eastern countries proves this
objective unobtainable but, with improved methods of detection