Heroin users: notifications to the Home Office Addict's Index by general practitioners

In a study of 113 heroin users who attended a Scottish general practice of 11 doctors information was gathered retrospectively regarding notification of these patients to the Home Office. The doctors were questioned about their practices for notification. Surprisingly few of the patients had been correctly notified and renotified where appropriate, and there was great variation in the doctors' notification practices, particularly with respect to defining addiction. General practitioners are now the largest source of notifications of controlled drug users, and the statistics issued by the Home Office must be interpreted in the light of their notification practices.