ENGLISH

Opium and the People: Opiate Use and Drug Control Policy in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century England

By Virginia Berridge

Book information

Publisher
Free Association Books
Year
1998
ISBN
1853434132, 9781853434136
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
4 MB (4323959 bytes)
Pages
0\455
Topic
History
Time added
2020-02-05 11:49:22

Description

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, opium was widely used as an everyday remedy for common ailments. By the 1920s, it was classified as a 'dangerous drug' and its use was severely restricted. In an examination of the social context of drug taking in Victorian England (morphine, cannabis and cocaine, as well as opium) the book explains this decisive change in attitude. This revised edition analyses how and why restrictive policies were put in place in the early decades of the twentieth century, and how the 'British system' of drug control accommodating both legal and medical controls was first established. It surveys the ways in which that balance has operated for the rest of the century. This study sheds fresh perspectives on the motivations which survive in the formation of current drug policies.

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