Swiss Voters Approve Legal Heroin Program

Program Allows Addicts To Receive Supervised Doses; Voters Also Uphold Marijuana Ban

(AP)  The world's most comprehensive legalized heroin program became permanent Sunday with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana.

The heroin program, started in 1994, is offered in 23 centers across Switzerland. It has helped eliminate scenes of large groups of drug users shooting up openly in parks that marred Swiss cities in the 1980s and 1990s and is credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts.

The nearly 1,300 selected addicts, who have been unhelped by other therapies, visit one of the centers twice a day to receive the carefully measured dose of heroin produced by a government-approved laboratory.

They keep their paraphernalia in cups labeled with their names and use the equipment and clean needles to inject themselves - four at a time - under the supervision of a nurse, and also receive counseling from psychiatrists and social workers.

The aim is to help the addicts learn how to function in society.

The United States and the U.N. narcotics board have criticized the program as potentially fueling drug abuse, but it has attracted attention from governments as far away as Australia and Canada, which in recent years have started or are considering their own programs modeled on the system.

The Netherlands started a smaller program in 2006, and it serves nearly 600 patients. Britain has allowed individual doctors to prescribe heroin since the 1920s, but it has been running trials similar to the Swiss approach in recent years. Belgium, Germany, Spain and Canada have been running trial programs too.

Sixty-eight percent of the 2.26 million Swiss voters casting ballots approved making the heroin program permanent.

By contrast, around 63.2 percent of voters voted against the marijuana proposal, which was based on a separate citizens' initiative to decriminalize the consumption of marijuana and growing the plant for personal use.

Olivier Borer, 35, a musician from the northern town of Solothurn, said he welcomed the outcome in part because state action was required to help heroin addicts, but he said legalizing marijuana was a bad idea.

"I think it's very important to help these people, but not to facilitate the using of drugs," Borer said. "You can just see in the Netherlands how it's going. People just go there to smoke."

Sabina Geissbuehler-Strupler of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, which led the campaign against the heroin program, said she was disappointed in the vote.

"That is only damage limitation," she said. "Ninety-five percent of the addicts are not healed from the addiction."

Health insurance pays for the bulk of the program, which costs 26 million Swiss francs ($22 million) a year. All residents in Switzerland, which has a population of 7.5 million, are required to have health insurance, with the government paying insurance premiums for those who cannot afford it.

Parliament approved the heroin measure in a revision of Switzerland's narcotics law in March, but conservatives challenged the decision and forced a national referendum under Switzerland's system of direct democracy.

Jo Lang, a Green Party member of parliament from the central city of Zug, said he was disappointed in the failure of the marijuana measure because it means 600,000 people in Switzerland will be treated as criminals because they use cannabis.

"People have died from alcohol and heroin, but not from cannabis," Lang said.

The government, which opposed the marijuana proposal, said it feared that liberalizing cannabis could cause problems with neighboring countries.

On a separate issue, 52 percent of voters approved an initiative to eliminate the statute of limitations on pornographic crimes against children before the age of puberty.

The current Swiss statute of limitations on prosecuting pedophile pornography is 15 years. The initiative will result in a change in the constitution to remove that time limit.

[regats-2009]

The Swiss legal heroin program does not fuel drug addiction.

It treats existing hard-core junkies with sterile needles and puts the dealers out of business. It reduces crime by making it unnecessary for an addict to be forced to pay exorbitant sums of money to the dealers, usually acquired by robbing and terrifying innocent people, and puts him in a place where he could potentially be rehabilitated.

This is something the US should seriously consider doing because heroin addiction and trafficking are not going away. The pushers are making a nice income thanks to American ignorance of the facts.

[gudogvenst]

This is something the US should seriously consider doing because heroin addiction and trafficking are not going away. The pushers are making a nice income thanks to American ignorance of the facts.


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Posted by Regats at 05:12 PM : Dec 01, 2008
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culture and several social factors play a key role on this success..

Money from from the swiss is NOTHING compared to what is made here in the US..

and we are talking about a society inwhich they have a"watch and egg somebody to commit suicide'' online mentality..

a south park..''fu ck you'' mentality..IT WILL NOT WORK..

your retort..

[mtminds]

Legalize Pot. More than 80% of people in prison are serving time for nonviolent crimes involving even possessing small amounts of marijuana.

China is the only nation that has more criminals behind bars than the US.

[mrmeatspin]

Legalize Pot. More than 80% of people in prison are serving time for nonviolent crimes involving even possessing small amounts of marijuana.

China is the only nation that has more criminals behind bars than the US.

Posted by mtminds at 06:40 PM : Dec 01, 2008
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******

our society CANNOT handle another kind of ''habit''.

so best to stop pretending like you care about its welfare..and just smoke your ''pot'' discreetly and envying these europeans

[mrmeatspin]

And they think they are having problems recruiting for the military NOW! Poppy is the cash crop of AFGHANISTAN, and the SWISS just created a demand for the product LEAGALLY! Do you think the TALIBAN won''''t fight until the death to regain control?! I feel sorry for our vets.

Posted by TiredoftheBS at 09:28 PM : Dec 01, 2008
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who needs a grunt these days??

technology is the answer..a handful of drones wreaked havoc in pakistan..imagine what it can do in afghanistan..

[kansas1946]

The United States and the U.N. narcotics board have criticized the program as potentially fueling drug abuse, but it has attracted attention from governments as far away as Australia and Canada, which in recent years have started or are considering their own programs modeled on the system.
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As usual, the US keeps beating the same drum about drugs, when their own drug war has been a spectacular failure, costing the American taxpayer trillions of dollars, millions of ruined lives, a severly crowded prison system, and more abuse than when this insane war started. I am glad to see some countries where sanity reigns.

[kansas1946]

And they think they are having problems recruiting for the military NOW! Poppy is the cash crop of AFGHANISTAN, and the SWISS just created a demand for the product LEAGALLY! Do you think the TALIBAN won''''t fight until the death to regain control?! I feel sorry for our vets.


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Posted by TiredoftheBS at 09:28 PM : Dec 01, 2008
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LOL.

[honestabe8]

"our society CANNOT handle another kind of ''habit''".
MrMeatSpin

MrMeatSpin: What is this opinion based on? Rather than seeing pot as "another kind of habit", why not see it as a less toxic alternative to alcohol?