Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
h e last time I was in Switzerland, I dropped into a Starbucks in down-
town Zürich, went downstairs into the bathroom...and it was all blue. I had
stumbled into another example of a creative European drug policy. h e Swiss,
who don't want their junkies shooting up in public bathrooms, install blue
lights. I couldn't see my veins...you couldn't shoot up if you wanted to.
Of course, this minor frustration wouldn't stop junkies from i nding a i x.
Across the street is a machine that once sold cigarettes. Now it sells hygienic,
government-subsidized syringes—three for two francs, less than a buck apiece.
h e Swiss recognize that heroin doesn't spread HIV/AIDS or other deadly
diseases. Dirty needles do. If addicts need more than just sterile needles, they
know they can go down the street to a heroin-maintenance clinic for their i x.
Rather than steal (or worse) to i nance their addiction, they get the services
of a nurse and a counselor. Swiss society is working to help addicts stay alive,
get of of welfare, and rejoin the workforce. Clinic workers told me that in
Switzerland, crime and AIDS cases related to heroin use have decreased, while
recovery and employment rates among their clients have increased.
When addicts aren't nervous about where they'll get their next i x, con-
sumption goes down (as do overdoses). When demand on the streets goes
down, so does the price. h is brings down street violence...and is bad news for a
pusher's bottom line. With clean needles and a source providing reliable purity,
potency, and quantity, maintaining the addiction becomes less dangerous. With
these provisions, you still have an addict—but you remove crime, violence,
money, and disease from the equation, so you can treat it for what it is: a health
problem for mixed-up people
who are screwing up their lives
and need help. As Swiss addicts
are safely dosed to maintenance
levels, they begin to reclaim their
lives, get jobs, pay taxes, and—in
many cases—kick their habit
altogether. Switzerland's heroin
maintenance centers (now also
in Germany and the Nether-
lands) succeed in reducing the
harm caused by drug abuse.
While heroin-maintenance
programs have been relatively
Swiss machines that once sold cigarettes now
sell government-subsidized syringes. When it
comes to needles in Switzerland, no one shares.
