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Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance derived from the dried latex of the Papaver somniferum plant and is mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical-grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brown powders sold illegally around the world as heroin are routinely diluted with cutting agents. Black tar heroin is a variable admixture of morphine derivatives—predominantly 6-MAM (6-monoacetylmorphine), which is the result of crude acetylation during clandestine production of street heroin. Heroin is used medically in several countries to relieve pain, such as during childbirth or a heart attack, as well as in opioid replacement therapy.
Opium is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids for medicinal use and for the illegal drug trade. The latex also contains the closely related opiates codeine and thebaine, and non-analgesic alkaloids such as papaverine and noscapine. The traditional, labor-intensive method of obtaining the latex is to scratch ("score") the immature seed pods (fruits) by hand; the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue that is later scraped off and dehydrated. The word meconium historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from other parts of the opium poppy or different species of poppies.
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Established in 1840, His Majesty's Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) is the organisation responsible for overseeing safety on Britain's railways and tramways. It was previously a separate non-departmental public body, but from 1990 to April 2006 it was part of the Health and Safety Executive. It was then transferred to the Office of Rail and Road and ceased to exist by that name in May 2009 when it was renamed the Safety Directorate. However, in summer 2015 its name was re-established as the safety arm of ORR.
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The drug policy of Portugal, informally called the "drug strategy", was put in place in 2000, and came into effect in July 2001. Its purpose was to reduce the number of new HIV/AIDS cases in the country, as it was estimated around half of new cases came from injection drug use.
Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT), or diamorphine assisted treatment, refers to a type of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) where semi-synthetic heroin is prescribed to opiate addicts who do not benefit from, or cannot tolerate, treatment with one of the established drugs used in opiate replacement therapy such as methadone or buprenorphine. For this group of patients, heroin-assisted treatment has proven superior in improving their social and health situation. Heroin-assisted treatment is fully a part of the national health system in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and Denmark. Additional trials are being carried out in the United Kingdom, Norway, and Belgium.
Dr Isabella McDougall Robertson, also known as Lady Frankau, was a British psychiatrist who specialised in alcohol and drug addiction.
Drugs considered addictive or dangerous in the United Kingdom are called "controlled substances" and regulated by law. Until 1964 the medical treatment of dependent drug users was separated from the punishment of unregulated use and supply. Under this policy drug use remained low; there was relatively little recreational use and few dependent users, who were prescribed drugs by their doctors as part of their treatment. From 1964 drug use was decreasingly criminalised, with the framework still in place as of 2014 largely determined by the Misuse of Drugs Act.
In 1924, following concerns about the treatment of addicts by doctors, James Smith Whitaker suggested to the Home Office who suggested to the Ministry of Health Departmental Committee on Morphine and Heroin Addiction be formed under the chairmanship of Sir Humphry Rolleston to "... consider and advise as to the circumstances, if any, in which the supply of morphine and heroin to persons suffering from addiction to those drugs may be regarded as medically advisable, and as to the precautions which it is desirable that medical practitioners administering or prescribing morphine or heroin should adopt for the avoidance of abuse, and to suggest any administrative measures that seem expedient for securing observance of such precautions". The committee is usually referred to as the Rolleston Committee.
In the United Kingdom the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920 is an Act which changed to a penal offence drug addiction which up to then was, within the medical profession, treated as a disease. The former was the view held by the then Assistant Under Secretary of State, Malcolm Delevingne.
John Petro, called 'The Junkie's Friend', was Polish and came to the UK in 1916. During the War he worked as a doctor with Alexander Fleming giving penicillin to the troops. In 1966, having been run down by a car, he was unable to work and soon got into debt. He was made bankrupt in 1967. He said he was unable to find premises, so he gave out prescriptions for drugs anywhere. He was thought to be selling prescriptions to addicts, which led to him being nicknamed the 'Junkie's Friend'. After pleading guilty at Marylebone Magistrates Court, in February 1968, he was fined £1700.
The Dangerous Drugs Regulations 1968 determined the consultants who could prescribe, or treat addicts either in psychiatric hospitals or drug dependency units. Other medical staff, if supervised by the consultants within the hospitals, would also be able to obtain licences. Doctors working outside the NHS would be considered if their organisations had similar facilities to the DDUs. Doctors who disobeyed these regulations might have their permissions to supply rescinded. In fact only the treatment centers were allowed to supply.
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In the United States, the opioid epidemic is an extensive ongoing overuse of opioid medications, both from medical prescriptions and illegal sources. The epidemic began in the United States in the late 1990s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when opioids were increasingly prescribed for pain management, resulting in a rise in overall opioid use throughout subsequent years. The great majority of Americans who use prescription opioids do not believe that they are misusing them.
The Office of the Inspector General of the United States Army (OTIG) is the agency tasked with investigating the United States Army. Its stated mission is to "provide impartial, objective and unbiased advice and oversight to the army through relevant, timely and thorough inspection, assistance, investigations, and training". The position of Inspector General (IG) has existed since 1777, when Thomas Conway was appointed, and the office has been reorganized many times, varied in size dramatically, and abolished on several occasions before being reinstated. In its early days, the inspectorate was frequently merged with, or proposed to be part of, the Adjutant General's department.
References
- ↑ "A History of Drug Prohibition". Transform Drug Policy Foundation. Transform Drug Policy Foundation. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
- ↑ Heroin Addiction care and control: the British System, HB Spear, 2002, page 35
- ↑ Sarah G. Mars (2012). "'Friendly' Visits and 'Evil Men': The Home Office Drugs Inspectorate". The Politics of Addiction. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 89–116. doi:10.1057/9781137272218_6. ISBN 978-1-349-30688-6 . Retrieved 9 October 2020.
- ↑ "The Shipman Inquiry". Crown. Archived from the original on 2 April 2002. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
- ↑ Spear HB. (2002). J. Mott (ed.). Heroin Addiction Care and Control: the British System, 1916-1974. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Vol. 96. DrugScope. pp. 99–100. ISBN 1-904-31904-1. PMC 539406 .
- ↑ Steve Abrams (30 April 2007). "Rufus Harris". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 7 July 2012.