Heroin (Hansard, 19 December 1955)

§ 13. Dr. Broughton
asked the Minister of Health his estimate of the quantity of heroin that has been stocked by hospitals since it became known that the further manufacture of the drug was likely to be banned.

§ Mr. Iain Macleod
I am aware that some hospitals have increased their stocks, but I cannot, without extensive inquiry, estimate the increase throughout the country.

§ Dr. Broughton
Is it not a fact that many of our hospitals, including some of the greatest teaching hospitals in the world, have been increasing their stocks of heroin since they heard of the threat to ban the manufacture of the drug? Is that not very strong evidence that many of the most distinguished members of the medical profession hold the opinion that there is no suitable and equally effective substitute for the drug, and will the right hon. Gentleman ensure that that is made abundantly clear in the White Paper which the Home Secretary has promised to publish?

§ Mr. Macleod
It is evidence, of course, of a conflict of view in the medical profession. We have always known that that conflict existed.

§ Mr. K. Robinson
Will the right hon. Gentleman say how he views this extraordinary exploitation on the part of some hospitals, which is designed solely to evade the decision which his Department has taken? Will he say whether he proposes to sanction this increased expenditure?

§ Mr. Macleod
I think that Question No. 18 covers that point.

§ 17. Dr. D. Johnson
asked the Minister of Health the number of registered heroin addicts who are at present licensed to 1643 receive the drug by National Health prescription; and what arrangements he proposes to make in respect of these people subsequent to the ban on the drug.

§ Mr. Iain Macleod
Heroin addicts are not registered or licensed to receive heroin, and a patient receives heroin under the National Health Service only if his doctor prescribes it as being necessary for his treatment. If heroin were not available it would be for the doctor to decide which, if any, of the various alternative drugs should be prescribed.

§ Dr. Johnson
May I ask my right hon. Friend if, in spite of what he has said, he will be mindful of the danger of the fact that these people, many of whom are chronic addicts, will form a hard core for the illicit traffic in drugs in the event of heroin being stopped? In particular, did my right hon. Friend see in last week's Lancet the letter by a medical man in which he mentioned that two of the addicts he was treating had been approached by pedlars in drugs?

§ Mr. Macleod
I saw that letter, which I thought was a very strange one for a doctor to write. In reply to the first part of the question, I would say that the number of addicts in this country is known to be so small that I do not think they would provide any appreciable traffic in an illicit trade.

§ 18. Lieut.-Colonel Lipton
asked the Minister of Health which London hospitals have, in view of the intended ban, increased their normal stocks of heroin; and whether he has approved the additional expenditure thereby incurred.

§ Mr. Iain Macleod
In reply to the first part of the Question. I regret that the information is not available. There would, of course, be no question of approval to additional expenditure for such a purpose but authority is not required for the purchase of drugs within the total of the approved budget.

§ Lieut.-Colonel Lipton
Is it not quite deplorable that a small group of doctors should have made up their mind to sabotage the ban the Government were intending to impose? Is the Minister not going to make clear that further attempts to evade the ban which the Government are standing by at the moment will be viewed with disfavour by him?

§ Mr. Macleod
This is a difficult question. We do not control the stocks of drugs which a hospital chooses to purchase, and even after reflection I do not want to issue any form of instruction on this matter; I think that would be going too far. On the other hand, it is right to say—this is, I think, behind the Question of the hon. and gallant Member—that this is an expenditure of public money and, that, therefore, those who spend it should take into account the views of the Government.

§ Mr. Remnant
Will my right hon. Friend remember that, in answer to a Question last week, he told me that he desired to leave the doctors to prescribe what drugs they thought fit, and will he take no action which would handicap hospital boards doing exactly that?

§ Mr. Macleod
I have covered that point in my reply to the last supplementary question.

§ 19. Dr. Broughton
asked the Minister of Health from which body of medical opinion he has sought expert advice since meeting a deputation from the British Medical Association in July, 1955.

§ Mr. Iain Macleod
None. No medical considerations were put forward by the Association which had not already been before the Standing Medical Advisory Committee.

§ Dr. Broughton
Does not the right hon. Gentleman think that when he had had such strong representations from the British Medical Association opposing the proposal he should have put the matter again before the Medical Advisory Committee, or, better still, before the Royal Colleges, and informed them of the protest of the Medical Association and asked them to consider the matter?

§ Mr. Macleod
The Chairman of the Council of the B.M.A., who led the deputation protesting to the Government against the ban, was one of those present at the meeting who concurred in the advice that the ban should be imposed. The reply to the other part of the question is that the considerations put forward were not strictly medical ones on which it might be necessary to have further advice, but related essentially to professional matters.

§ Sir R. Boothby
Is it not a fact that the Chairman of the British Medical Association has since withdrawn from his position and retracted the views he expressed as a member of the Advisory Committee? Further, is it the intention of the Minister not to have further consultations either with the British Medical Association, the Medical Research Council or anyone?

§ Mr. Macleod
The answer to the first part of the question is "Yes," and to the second part, "No."

§ Dr. Summerskill
Does the right hon. Gentleman know that to do as my hon. Friend the Member for Batley and Morley (Dr. Broughton) suggested would be quite improper —it would in fact be trying to bring pressure to bear on the Standing Advisory Committee by the British Medical Association? The Standing Advisory Committee is representative of the highest medical thought in this country, and to bring pressure of that kind to bear upon it would be grossly unfair?

§ Mr. Macleod
I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for that question. Perhaps I should make it clear that the Government believe they went to the right body to get this advice, and that this Committee is a body of the greatest distinction. It was on the basis of that advice that I advised my right hon. and gallant Friend the Home Secretary.