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58.
An 11pp. typescript (carbon) of Alexander Trocchi's essay concerning the Brain Committee, the Brain Report and his own heroin addiction (London, July 1966).
Eleven foolscap sheets of pink paper, stapled at top left corner. Approx. 40 holograph amendments by the author to lower right corners of the first three sheets (where carbon worn or missing). Sent by Trocchi to Bill Levy at International Times, c. 1967.
The article, untitled here but later titled "Problems and Pseudoproblems concerning Dangerous Drugs", sets out Trocchi's critical response to the findings and decisions taken by the Brain Committee (named after its chairman Sir Russell Brain), an interdepartmental committee instituted by the British government in 1958 that delivered reports in 1961 and 1965.
In one of the most sustained expositions of his views on drug addiction and drug policy, Trocchi (describing himself as "the articulate 'addict") questions the decisions regarding heroin contained in the First Brain Report, and suggests the possibility of using hashish for medical purposes ("in the art of diagnosis"). In conclusion, he writes: "Ignorance breeds fear… There is no room for restrictive legislation based on this fear of the unknown in this last third of the 20th century… We must let the light into what has traditionally been a dark area of human experience… And in the end, I suspect, we shall find that here is another area of human experience in which what is most to be feared is fear itself."
The Department of Special Collections, Washington University Libraries, holds a copy of the typescript, along with two related typescripts, the first titled "Reflections in an Old Vein: A Criticism of the Brain Committee's Recommendation" (6pp.), and the second (8pp.) with an autograph note by Trocchi, "First Draft of article by European rep of Washington Post"; no further copies can be located institutionally, however, nor any record of its publication.
Lower right corners slightly dog-eared, o/w Very Good.
