Ye olde london heroin scenes

[cz-one]

Got a fascinating insight into the glory days of opiated 'swinging' london from the late 60's/early 70's from an old-timer with a habit older than me! Heroin/cocaine/methamphetamine/dexedrine/barbiturates etc. were able to be prescribed to junkies,ironically,to stop a black market in drugs occuring! a hardcore of a handful of dr's in london were responsible for this prescribing to junkies in the low hundreds,who of course abused this and this led to the crackdown which became the misuse of drugs act to stop it,along with these dr's being struck off for their reckless prescribing. Apparently,one of these old dr's,in his 70's,would sit down in a cafe in piccadilly underground station,and write out prescriptions for a queue of addicts stretching out of the station all day long,and of course the surplus would end up being sold,as the scripts would be for: 200x10mg diamorphine tablets(also known as jacks,from where the term jacking up comes from),along with ampoules of pharmaceutical cocaine,and addicts would even rinse their works out with methedrine amps(methamphetamine hcl),such was the surplus around. The end came with tabloids exposing this handful of dr's and their excessive supplying to basically anyone who wanted it,though suprisingly,despite the availability,the number of addicts was very small,some 100-200,but once it became controlled by the new drugs laws,the number of addicts has doubled/quadrupled every year,so one could say the laws were a resounding failure,and i wander if they would be so huge figures if that prescribing by dr's to prevent a black market had been allowed to continue,it wouldnt be seen as cool,and indeed,the sight of these junkies queueing for their scripts was seen as sad and pathetic by the general public,but it did keep in check a potential crime explosion that has happened in the uk cause of heroins illegality,as they didnt need to steal,as the drugs were free on our NHS. Sorry if i've waffled on a bit,but i do find hearing about how things were like during the early days of the UK and USA drugs scenes,especially the 60'sand 70's,i'm also interested in hearing about the scenes from 1940's/1950's and 1970's/1980's new york city,the legendary dope spots,with line enforcers watching the queues etc.,if any of you's experienced those times perhaps you could share some war-stories,what were the deals and prices like?whatwas the gear like? how different are things now and when did it start to change? peace..out.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Unfortunately swim did not experience any of those times and places though he wishes he had.