The UK used to prescribe heroin for addicts, which I understand inspired the Swiss treatment of addicts. Rolling that back as part of the war on addiction seems to have been counterproductive in terms of overall health.
The Swiss experiment was a massive disaster. Wish we had never done it, and it certainly took a few decades to clean up its effect on parts of Zürich. It attracted junkies from all over Europe and with it brought crime and violence. I spent a few years going to primary school near the epicenter of it in the late 90s. The number of times I saw people shooting up in broad daylight right in front of my school… is shocking. Even more shocking were the parks littered in used needles. Parks kids would play in… can you imagine what can happen? They'd be cleaned up on the regular, and staff would literally have bags full of used needles!
It was pretty traumatic to see, not that I really understood it as a kid.
It was way worse than the streets of San Francisco today, which are an absolute disaster too!
Good riddance, getting rid of that "treatment" was the best thing we ever did.
I don’t think the parent is talking about the heroin free-for-all experiment in the Landesmuseum park but rather the supervised injection clinics which continue to be a component of Swiss drug treatment policy. Compared to other cities of similar size, it’s rare to see actual junkies in Swiss cities.
I don't think direct heroin-assisted treatment has been commonplace in the UK for a long time. You need an individual license from the Home Office for diamorphine prescription [1], whereas the opiate replacement drugs can be prescribed by any medical prescriber (though in practice this tends to be only done by specialists and some GPs).
It was pretty traumatic to see, not that I really understood it as a kid.
It was way worse than the streets of San Francisco today, which are an absolute disaster too!
Good riddance, getting rid of that "treatment" was the best thing we ever did.