Changing trends in drug use: the second follow-up of a local heroin using community

The first Seadown study documented the way in which police action in closing down the cohort's central point for meeting and drug distribution had effectively destroyed the long established heroin distribution network. Throughout the period of low heroin availability the social network of the cohort was preserved as members developed a whole range of alternative coping styles (displacement activities) in compensation for the enforced abstinence caused by the heroin drought. During the period of observation heroin returned to Seadown initially through a small, unstable and informal distribution co-operative and stayed in this phase until a new central meeting place had been established. Thereafter once a pyramidal distribution network developed, most cohort members were able to modify or stop their displacement activities to accommodate the re-availability of heroin.