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

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

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 A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

and the

Secretary of State for Scotland The secretary of state for Scotland (; ), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Scotland Office. The incum ...

. 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 it 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 In 1924, following concerns about the treatment of addicts by doctors, James Smith Whitaker suggested to the Home Office who suggested to the Ministry of Health Departmental Committee on Morphine and Heroin Addiction be formed under the chairman ...

, 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 Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

and

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

, and that the main source of supply was a small number of overprescribing doctors. The Rolleston defined addiction as an individualised pathology, whilst the second Brain report explicitly described the condition as a socially infectious one. 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 The Wootton Report on ''cannabis'' (dated 1968 and published in January 1969) was compiled by the Sub-committee on Hallucinogens of the United Kingdom Home Office Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence. The sub-committee was chaired by Barones ...

References

{{reflist Home Office (United Kingdom) Substance dependence Government agencies established in 1958 History of mental health in the United Kingdom Drugs in the United Kingdom 1958 establishments in the United Kingdom