The heroin problem: Learning from past experiments in narcotic maintenance

The following paper examines the ongoing political, legal and cultural debate regarding heroin maintenance in the U.S. that emerged after the passage of the Harrison Act. Moreover, it focuses on the United States very brief experimentation with narcotics maintenance clinics from 1914-1924 and why the clinic system was ultimately dismantled by the Treasury Department. This paper also highlights the U.S. public policy debate that emerged as early as the 1950s and continues today to develop heroin maintenance trials.