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Drug treatment – a historical perspective
Virginia Berridge, Professor of History, Centre for History in Public Health, Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Abstract
What's so new about the new abstentionism? History and treatment policy.
In recent years, the debate on the new abstentionism has gathered pace and has gained political support. In this talk, I will reflect on the past history of treatment- but also on what may be different about the current debate.
This debate carries with it echoes from the past .Maintenance or abstinence as major options for treatment were matters of debate in the 1880s, the 1920s and the 1970s. Particular interests in addiction treatment lined up round these options. The rise of the user in drug treatment seems new, but has cemented a relationship with doctors which has a long history.
Nor is the backdrop to this debate, the intersection of treatment and criminal justice, a new arrival on the drug scene. That interconnection has marked drug treatment from the late nineteenth century.
But the point of history is not to say that nothing changes, rather to look at the interests which shape such responses , how these are aligned and have changed over time.
And there is also a wider context to take account of- signs of a more restrictive approach across the substances,- alcohol, drugs and tobacco. This is a change that also has its opponents - in those who want a 'brave new world' of 'medication for all'.
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Biography
Virginia Berridge is Professor of History and director of the Centre for History in Public Health London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London.
Her publications include Opium and the People ( revised edition 1999), AIDS in the UK : the making of policy,
1981-1994 (Oxford University Press,1996) and , most recently ,Marketing
health. Smoking and the discourse of public health in Britain, 1945-2000
(Oxford UP,2007) She is a member of the Alcohol and Education Research Council
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