Switzerland's Liberal Drug Policy Seems To Work, Study Says

Medical News Today ^ | 02 Jun 2006 | Joe Santangelo

[Know your rights]

Switzerland's policy of offering heroin addicts substitution treatment with methadone or buprenorphine has led to a decline in the number of new heroin users in Zurich, according to a paper published in this week's issue of The Lancet.

Switzerland has implemented various policies to try and reduce harm to dependent heroin users, including needle-exchange services, low-threshold methadone programmes, and heroin-assisted treatments. However, critics say that these policies may lead to a growing number of new drug users and lengthen the period of heroin addiction.

To investigate, Carlos Nordt and Rudolf Stohler from the Psychiatric University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland analysed data from over 7250 patients in Zurich who presented for substitution treatments with methadone or buprenorphine over 13 years from 1991. From this data they estimated trends in the number of new heroin users. They found that the incidence of heroin use dropped from 850 new users in 1990 to 150 in 2002. The authors contrast the situation with heroin use in the UK, Italy, and Australia, which has continued to rise. They also found a low cessation (quit) rate and therefore, the overall number of heroin dependents, whether in treatment or not, only declined by 4% per year.

Dr Nordt states: "As the Swiss population supported this drug policy, this medicalisation of opiate dependence changed the image of heroin use as 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. Nevertheless, whether drug policy had a positive effect on the number of new heroin users or not, our data could not confirm an increase of heroin incidence as expected by the critics of the liberal Swiss drug policy."

[Gay State Conservative]

Finally, heroin seems to have become a 'loser drug', with its attractiveness fading for young people. Wait until the Swiss get a closeup look at meth.Their "progressive" attitude toward drugs might backfire....badly...with meth.

[mugs99]

Swiss get a closeup look at meth.Their "progressive" attitude toward drugs might backfire....badly...with meth

And ours is working?
.

[AntiGuv]

Their "progressive" attitude toward drugs might backfire....badly...with meth.

Sure, it "might" backfire, perhaps even "badly" so, in some hypothetical fantasy, but for now, here in reality, it hasn't backfired - but rather it seems to work.

[Know your rights]

Wait until the Swiss get a closeup look at meth.Their "progressive" attitude toward drugs might backfire....badly...with meth.

Meth is much harder on its users than is heroin ... but why would that mean a bad backfire, when their heroin policy seems to be succeeding?

[Vigilanteman]

Well, Singapore's drug program works pretty well too and has a far, far better success rate than Switzerland's.

[Know your rights]

And ours is working?

Yes, according to the criminals it enriches and the LEOs and bureacrats it employs.

[Know your rights]

Singapore's drug program works pretty well

I don't want this Land of the Free to become another Singapore ... do you?

[Know your rights]

Ken, don't you have statistics on the "success" of Singapore's drug policy?

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Theodore Dalrymple has an interesting take on heroin addiction.

[wolficatZ]

LOL, I keep seeing that "noose" lately.

[mugs99]

Well, Singapore's drug program works pretty well too and has a far, far better success rate than Switzerland's.

Drugs are plentiful and cheap in Singapore. Their war on drugs is working as well as our war on drugs.
.

[martin_fierro]

SOMALIA: Libertarian Paradise.

[mugs99]

SOMALIA: Libertarian Paradise

No, Somalia is a Theocratic paradise.
.

[Know your rights]

SOMALIA: Libertarian Paradise.

In what sense is Somalia "libertarian"?

[wildcatf4f3]

methadone treatment is available around the USA---but one is still physically addited to opiates. WHAT A DRAG!!!

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Imagine that. A study, published in the media, showing how effective a liberal policy is.

I bet they can even provide a graph to back it up.

[mugs99]

methadone treatment is available around the USA---but one is still physically addited to opiates. WHAT A DRAG!!!

Very few addicts require methadone to quit. Thousands of American servicemen became addicted to heroin in Viet Nam. Almost all quit with no problem when they returned home. Methadone is to a heroin addict what a nicotine patch is to a tobacco addict.
.

[andrew2527]

Do you equate Medical News Today with the mainstream media?

[corkoman]

Swiss get a closeup look at meth.Their "progressive" attitude toward drugs might backfire....badly...with meth

The black market established from the prohibition of cocaine is one reason for the swelling meth problem. If the cost of cocaine was reduced with decriminalization the incentive to make meth would be reduced accordingly.

If you had to choose between meth addiction and cocaine addiction most health/psych care professionals I am associated with would pick cocaine as the lesser of the two evils.

The WOD has unintended consequences.