The British government, unsure of how to proceed, appointed a man called Sir Humphrey Rolleston, a baronet and president of the Royal College of Physicians, to decide what our policy should be. After taking a great deal of evidence, he became convinced that the doctors were right: “Relapse,” he found, “sooner or later, appears to be the rule, and permanent cure the exception.” So he insisted that doctors be left the leeway to prescribe heroin or not, as they saw fit.
