BRITISH SYSTEM OF DRUG CONTROL

British System of Drug Control

British System of Drug Control

Introduction

The British system of Drug control as it is commonly known as; is not exactly a system but it is a set of programs and principles which reflect the response of the society to contain the use of heroin and opiate dependence. The principle of this drug control system is based on the idea that government should offer medical and health programmes for the people who are addicted to drugs, in order to restrain the growing problem of drug addiction in the country. The system also refers to the role of the government in which government have to reform and introduce laws that will help in controlling this problem. In most contemporary societies the abuse of psychoactive substances is treated as a serious social problem. The most prominent of these are the opiates (such as heroin and morphine), cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines, and sundry others including the hallucinogen LSD and the 'designer drugs 'MDMA and MDA (Strang & Gossop 2005, pp. 56-98).

While generally committed to drug regulation and control, there is considerable variation in the social and legal responses to the consumption of these substances in the world community. Consequently, the body of law, policy, and ethical and moral beliefs that have taken shape globally are varied and complex. This paper, in this connection will systematically examine these variations throughout the history to provide evaluation of British System of Drug Control.

Background of British System of Drug Control

The international control of drugs, such as opium, coca, cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco, started at the end of the nineteenth century. Before these drugs came under international control, their global exchange had been ruled by free trade. In fact, many of the states shaping the international control system in the twentieth century had profited from the drug trade in the centuries before (Parker, Williams and Aldridge 2002, pp. 941-964). The most evident example was the flourishing trade in opium between China and the British colony of India in the nineteenth century, which provided the British Empire with crucial revenues.

The shift from free drug trade to control was the result of economic and political changes. Industrialization and growing world trade were the bases for the expanding global use and production of substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and opium. In response to this expansion, social reformers gathered political momentum against the, in their eyes, immoral drug trade at the end of the nineteenth century. In particular, Christian missionaries were among the first to pressure the British and U.S. governments to limit their involvement in the alcohol and opium trade. Bishop Charles Henry Brent, who had gained firsthand experience of opium smoking and trade in the U.S. colony of the Philippines, zealously advocated the international prohibition of dangerous drugs (Buchanan 2009, pp. 7-10).

Moral crusaders inspired by Brent also found support for their cause in new medical research, which highlighted the health risks of drug use. Although opium and alcohol-based remedies had been indispensable to the medical chest ...