Changing the Stigma

A decade ago, Switzerland decided to implement needle exchange programs and other harm prevention strategies to fight heroin. It was at the beginning of when I became interested in the issue of drug laws and I remember there was much screaming from the usual suspects about how this would lead to chaos and an explosion of heroin addicts. Nope:

The UK should follow the example of the Swiss capital Zurich, which adopted a liberal drug policy a decade ago and has seen an 82% decline in new users of heroin, experts say.

The change has been achieved by offering drug addicts in Switzerland "substitution" treatment with injectable heroin on prescription, as well as oral methadone, needle exchange and "shooting galleries" where they can give themselves their fix.

The new approach has medicalised drug use and removed its glamour, researchers say. Crime and deaths linked with drugs have fallen, and the image of heroin use has been transformed from a rebellious act to an illness that needs therapy.

"Finally, heroin seems to have become a loser drug, with its attractiveness fading for young people," Carlos Nordt, of the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich, said.

The Lancet accuses the British government of resisting reforms such as the introduction of drug consumption rooms - safe injecting houses where addicts can take their fix - which are contributing to Britain's death rate from illegal drug use, the highest in Europe.