Needle Exchange in Historical Context: Responses to the 'Drugs Problem'

The history of the non-medical use of analgesic and psycho-active drugs is marked on the one hand by governmental, medical and judicial indifference - particularly in the nineteenth century - and on the other by frenetic activity in all these arenas. It is clear that at present we are, in historical terms, experiencing the second of these responses to drug use - near frenzied activity.