Drug consumption in London and Western Berlin during the 1960s and 1970s: local and transnational perspectives.

Between about 1964 and 1969, drug consumption was embedded into the transnational networks of a countercultural youth underground. In London, the high mobility of the underground members was evoking a deep-rooted fear of a casual way of life. The West Berlin underground was much more politicized than its London counterpart. In West Berlin, until the last third of the 1970s, there was no coordinated anti-drug policy. This changed when the situation of heroin users deteriorated. Politicians as well as the members of the self-help organizations began to realize that a close cooperation and an improved communication were imperative. The situation for heroin users in 1970s London was not that bad when compared to Berlin because a relatively well-functioning civil society already existed, and there were special clinics, the Drug Treatment Centers, and a relatively well-working network of voluntary organizations.