Tom Waller, MBBS, DObstRCOG, was a GP, lecturer and tutor in Central London 1973-88 and a GP in Suffolk from 1988-96. He developed an interest in substance use when he became first medical adviser to a short-stay hostel for drug users in crisis in 1978 and used this experience in his own general practice. He was a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs from 1983-88 and 1993-96. In 1996 he became Suffolk County Specialist for problem substance use.

Daphne Rumball MB, ChB, DRCOG, FRCPsych is a consultant psychiatrist in Norfolk Mental Health Care NHS Trust, specialising in drugs and alcohol, and working with a multi-disciplinary team in a large urban and rural practice in Norwich. She is also an honorary academic adviser and tutor at the School of Medicine, University of East Anglia.