Social - When Heroin was Legal

[helene]

When heroin was legal

By Jonathan Duffy
BBC News Magazine

As recently as the 1950s, heroin was a popular medicine prescribed by family doctors. But growing fears about the drug's addictiveness led to the start of it becoming criminalised, 50 years ago this week.

"The Case for Heroin" - so ran the headline for the Times leader column of Tuesday, 14 June 1955.

In the course of a short, lucid article the newspaper which had long been the mouthpiece of Establishment Britain set out its argument in favour of heroin.

In the context of all that has happened since, from heroin's link with violent crime to the transfer of HIV among users who share needles, as well as countless other social ills, such an article today would seem unthinkable in all but the most libertarian of newspapers.

But in mid-1950s Britain, the spectre of drug addiction was a long way from the top of the public's concerns.

In fact, as the Times editorial states, in 1955 there were only 317 addicts to "manufactured" drugs in the whole of Britain, of which just 15% were dependent on heroin. That's a national total of 47.5 heroin addicts.

History, regrettably, does not record the precise circumstances of the half-addict.

By contrast, in the US, where heroin was outlawed in 1925, it was said to
be a "major social problem".

But who were this handful of heroin addicts?

According to Dr James Mills, a historian who has traced drug use through the 20th century, they tended to be doctors or middle-class patients who could afford to sustain a habit.

"In the 1930s, it was really the well-to-do crowd. The working classes might have a bit of heroin in the medicine prescribed to them but it wouldn't be enough to form a dependency," says Dr Mills.

Clearly, the fact heroin was legal and widely prescribed for common ailments such as coughs, colds and diarrhoea, as well as a pain killer, had not led to the sort of widespread dependency that opponents of legalisation fear it would do if legalised today.

In fact, heroin's emergence on to the medical stage was so low-key it effectively sat on the shelf for 20 years. First synthesised in 1874 by an English chemist, from morphine (an opiate) and acetic anhydride, and medically known as diacetylmorphine, it was picked up by the German drugs firm Bayer in 1898.

The name heroin probably derives from the German word heroisch, which means powerful. And it certainly was, with tests proving it was up to eight times stronger a painkiller than morphine.

Bad reputation

During the 19th Century, opiates had become a valuable commodity for British-run India, where they were grown and sold to China, which was home to millions of opium addicts. Although this trade began to decline in the early 20th century, the rise of opiate-based medicines was encouraged by the British.

But in the US it was already starting to get a bad reputation as an addictive drug that could produce intense euphoria. The Americans set about banning this dangerous new narcotic and put pressure on other countries to do the same. In the UK, however, there was great resistance from medics who celebrated heroin's analgesic qualities. Nevertheless, the Home Office set up a drugs branch and began keeping tabs on the small number of heroin abusers.

In the 1930s, this amounted to little more than "one very small circle of heroin addicts", according to Henry "Bing" Spear, who became the government's anti-drug enforcement chief.

According to Spear, the group's three leaders had picked up their habit in mainland Europe and returned there to restock with heroin.

Selling brown

"They met at chemists and doctors' surgeries," according to Richard Davenport-Hines, in his book The Pursuit of Oblivion. "There was a bit of borrowing and lending but no evidence of widespread selling."

"The police had a very tight rein on what was going on. The Home Office kept a register of addicts and there was never more than 500 at one time," says Dr James Mills. After WWII, the illegal drugs scene began to take off in the UK, but was mainly confined to cannabis. In the US, however, heroin, despite being illegal, was finding its way into the bohemian jazz scene. Musicians such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday all had documented habits.

Britain was tame by comparison, says be-bop trumpeter Dizzy Reece, who came to London in 1948, aged 17.

"You never saw [heroin] in the clubs. Sure, some people were taking it but it was in private, at their house," says Reece, speaking from his home in New York.

"But I do remember people queuing up outside Boots chemist in Piccadilly Circus at midnight to get their heroin pills, on prescription. They called them 'jacks' - heroin pills."

What illegal activity there was, was pounced on by the police who launched a sting in September 1951, after hearing that a man named "Mark" was selling "white drugs" in London's West End. The man - real name Kevin Patrick Saunders - was arrested and found to have supplied heroin to 14 people.

By the mid 50s, international pressure was growing on the Eden government to ban heroin manufacture, imports and exports. And despite committing to such action in 1955, it retreated from the ban on manufacturing in response to doctors' protests, and, perhaps, the Times's leader column.

Heroin Clampdown

Globally, the clampdown of heroin was in full swing by the mid 1950s
In 1956 the US made the supply of heroin to a minor a capital offence
UK one of the few countries where diamorphine (heroin) still available on prescription

It is still prescribed to about 1% (about 500 people) of addicts as treatment

Macfarlan Smith is the only legal producer in the UK (Source: Dr Tom Carnwath)

Reputation Comments on this post:

Excellent Article

[Sib]

There's a great documentary named 'illegal drugs and how they got that way' which deals with heroin, cocaine, xtc etc. I got it on torrents.

[chillinwill]

Sib it is located here on DF

Hooked: Illegal Drugs & How They Got That Way - Crack & Cocaine

Hooked: Illegal Drugs & How They Got That Way - Opiates

Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way - LSD, Ecstasy & the Raves

[cra$h]

I'm surprised it took until the 50's to have it banned. Who would have thought marijuana would be criminalized before heroin? Damn, what a backwards world...

[missparkles]

Jesus. Sparkles can remember going down the "Dilly" and "jacking up" after scoring pills, around 1968.
It's interesting to look at how societies views towards addiction have changed. When Sparkles was in treatment the first time (alcohol and drug treatment centre) alcoholics would introduce their visitors to us "druggies" (all two of us).
They'd never met a heroin addict before and were curious.
There was definitely a mystique around heroin then. Using back then was almost like making a statement that you were a "non conformist" it certainly didn't have the neg rep it has now. People sorta saw you as weird, not a lesser person because you were an addict.

[Junkhead23]

It wasn't really a problem until the 50s in the UK that is why it took so long. makes me think in a way that making things illegal actually makes things more appealing to people

[motorhead]

People have to remember that using drugs as a recreational activity didn't really become widespread or popular in western culture until the second half of the 20th century. The rise of pop/entertainment culture has alot to do with this.

Those were different times in early part of the 20th century, youth culture didn't really explode until the 60's when middle-class affluence, Rock n' Roll, and ever growing media took off. Drug use as a whole I think became more widespread during this time in history.

[helene]

Have a look at that video which is linked to in an above post. I was quite surprised to discover that recreational opiate use in the west was in fact fairly common as early as the start of the C20th.

H

[motorhead]

I guess I was speaking rather generally in my original post. In regards to opiates, yes even late 19th century saw alot of civil war vets using morphine. The same era saw an influx of chinese labour that brought opium smoking into popularity in the West. Basically what I meant was that the level of drug use amongst everybody, regardless of race or socio/economic background was nowhere near what it is today.

Sometimes I wonder what course of events could have taken place in our history that could have kept drugs legal and in the realm of pharmacology, rather than banned and in the hands of law enforcement.

[Junkhead23]

Opium and Laudanum were consumed in the UK in the 19th century

[sasafrass]

Consumer Reports, in the early 1970's, wrote an excellent book still very accurate today called "Licit and Illicit Drugs." You'd be amazed at their true findings. Which included a founder of James Hopkins Hospital who was on the cutting edge, no pun intended, of surgery, was addicted to morphine. And Winston Churchill had a liking for herion cough drops.