ABSTRACT
We have been keen to gather, within this book, first-hand accounts of different stages of the British System. And so the chapters in these two volumes are, in many instances, first-hand accounts from key informants who were often themselves an active part of the phenomena described in the particular chapter. The original role played by these contributors will vary – for some they may have been government officials, or senior clinicians, or perhaps drug users seeking (or rejecting) some particular offered treatment. But for all of them, we have asked that they seek out the accurate historical facts and provide as objective a commentary as possible, making maximum use of the distance in time that now exists to increase their capacity for reflection and objective scrutiny. For many of the contributors, this has been a challenging task, with the need to re-examine old data and old values, and we are particularly grateful to them – we believe that the effort in construction of these chapters and the resulting special contribution are evident on reading the individual accounts.
