The Interdepartmental Committee on Drug Addiction, commonly called the Brain Committee after its chairman Sir Russell Brain, was created by the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 in 1958 to consider issues related to drugs and drug addiction in the United Kingdom. The committee explored whether or not certain drugs should be considered addictive or habit-forming; examined whether there was a medical need to provide special, including institutional, treatment outside the resources already available, for persons addicted to drugs; and made recommendations, including proposals for administrative measures, to the Minister of Health

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing

The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy, commonly referred to as the Health Secretary, is a cabinet position in the Scottish Government...

 and the Secretary of State for Scotland

Secretary of State for Scotland

The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...

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The committee produced two reports.

The First Brain Report

The first report is also known as The Report of the Second Inter-departmental Committee on Drug Addiction, and was published in 1961. It stated that the incidence of addiction to dangerous drugs in Great Britain was small. This was the same conclusion drawn by the previous committee, The Rolleston Committee

Rolleston Committee

In 1924, following concerns about the treatment of addicts by doctors, Smith Whitaker suggested to the Home Office who suggested to the Ministry of Health that the Rolleston Committee be formed under the chairmanship of Sir Humphry Rolleston to ".....

, in 1926.

The Second Brain Report

The second report was published in 1964. This report showed that there had been a significant rise in the incidence of addiction to heroin and cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

, that the main source of supply was a small number of over-prescribing doctors. It recommended the establishment of special treatment centres, especially in the London area, where addicts could be isolated from the community and treated. These became known as Drug Dependency Units, or DDUs.

Evolution

A recommendation of the second committee was to set up a Standing Advisory Committee to keep under review the whole problem of drug dependence. This drew on evidence provided by doctors and eventually they produced a report, the Wootton Report

Wootton Report

The Wootton Report on Cannabis was the Report, dated 1968 and published in January 1969. of the Sub-committee on Hallucinogens of the United Kingdom Home Office Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence. The Chair of the Sub-committee was Baroness Wootton of Abinger.The Sub-committee was charged with...

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