ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief survey of the history of illegal drug use and young people, focusing particularly on Britain since the 1960s. The Rolleston Committee, convened in 1924 to examine the legitimacy or otherwise of prescribing morphine and heroin to individuals addicted to the drugs, found that addicts were few in number and mostly middle-aged, middle-class people who had become addicted following treatment for another condition. The chapter outlines the key changes and continuities in drug use and the response to this among young people. In 1973, 11,476 people were found guilty of, or cautioned for, cannabis-related offences, a figure that is likely to reflect just a small proportion of people using the drug. Drug Treatment and Testing Orders compelled drug users to enter treatment, often as an alternative to a custodial sentence.
