Harry Anslinger believed he had spotted the crucial flaw in heroin prescription programs like this. Addicts’ bodies gradually develop a tolerance for their drug, so he said they would need higher and higher doses over time to achieve the same effect. “The addict is never satisfied with his dose; he always tries to get more,” he explained. He praised two of his officers who laid out what they called the First Law of Addiction: “A person in the condition of opiate addiction, with free access to opiates, will continue in that condition at an accelerated rate of consumption unless the course of
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