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(THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT)
SECRET
C.P.(55) 185
30th November, 1955
CABINET
COPY NO.
HEROIN
Memorandum by the Secretary of State for the Home
Department and the Minister of Health
The Prime Minister has asked that the question of the ban on the manufacture of heroin should be brought before the Cabinet.
2. In 1950 member states of the World Health Organisation were asked for their views "concerning the necessity for the use or the dispensability of heroin and the reasons therefor".
3. In October, 1950, the Minister of Health sought the advice of his Standing Medical Advisory Committee (S.M.A.C.) on the question whether, if an international agreement on the prohibition of the use of heroin were proposed, there was sufficient medical reason why the Government should not support the proposal.
4. The S.M.A.C, consulted the British Pharmacopoeia Commission, which expressed the view that, although heroin was still proclaimed by some practitioners to be of great value as a sedative after operations and in inoperable malignant diseases and, to a lesser degree, in severe paroxysmal cough, the advantages sc claimed did not outweigh the grave consequences of widespread addiction in certain countries. The Commission consulted the British Medical Association (B.M.A.), as well as other professional bodies, before coming to their decision to agree to delete from the British Pharmacopoeia the monograph on heroin, if international agreement on prohibition were reached.
5.
In December, 1950, the S.M.A.C, advised the Minister of Health that it would be justifiable to prohibit the use of heroin in Britain, if international agreement were reached on its prohibition and sale, and the Central Health Services Council informed the Minister that they had no comment to offer on this advice. In the same month the S,M.A.C. of the Scottish Health Services Council expressed the view that there was no sufficient medical reason against a ban on the use of heroin.
6. In the 1953 edition of the British Pharmacopoeia the monograph on heroin was omitted.
7. In 1953, the World Health Organisation recommended, after reporting that 54 out of 82 states had expressed the view that the medical use of heroin could be dispensed with, that member states which had not already done so should prohibit the importation and manufacture of the Page 462 of 321
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