@GregCentauro
The first programs started in 1995 actually and since then spread all over Switzerland, and they do work. It's in the nature of hard drugs like Heroin that addicts spread the disease so to speak and create new addicts and this cycle was broken by starting the Heroin programs. All the open scenes in major cities in Switzerland - Platzspitz in Zurich being the most notorious - have since been reduced to being practically nonexistent. Of course about 2/3 of the clients in these programs will be there for the rest of their lives and some people have a problem with this but what's the alternative? These addicts would have otherwise been on the streets- most of them anyways - , leading a much unhealthier life, going in and out of prisons and somewhere down the line would have died because of this lifestyle. Now they have a chance to experience a healthier and better life, will become older and most important of all will NOT help create new addicts. I know these programs and I can assure you that they work the way they were intended to do. The Germans, Danes, British and Canadian have sent groups of experts to Switzerland to learn about these programs and there are ongoing efforts in said countries to start similar programs.
Of course the US drug policy is so hypocritical and puritanical that no change is in sight. Instead they continue to build new prisons and feed them with inmates being there on a ridiculous drug charge. The war on drugs is in reality a war on their own citizens and the people behind the scenes have their own agenda. It's a war with devastating consequences and as long as the majority of Americans support these insane drug laws the madness will continue.
@BellaBellini
You're absolutely right, good post! The programs do work this way and nowadays you'll find many former drug addicts that lead rather "normal" lives. The state-sanctioned Heroin allows them to function in daily life, hold a job, pay their taxes and not get in trouble with the law. The pros outweigh by far the cons. Most of the clients in these programs have a drug career with 20 plus years behind them, have experienced prison, detox and therapy multiple times but still were unable to lead a drug free live.
The philosophy behind these programs is based on a very pragmatic approach but it does work, way better than all the repression they used for decades before. Even the (mostly) religious anti-people have shut up in the meantime because they saw with their own eyes that what has been promised in the nineties has now been realized. Go trough any major Swiss city and look for an open drug scene like in the eighties and early nineties and you won't find any.
Hopefully other countries will adopt a similar approach instead of arresting people suffering from addiction left and right! The so-called war on drugs serves only the interests of a few people and is used to build a police state and control society. The people in power need always a scapegoat, a nebulous enemy to justify their monopoly of violence. Drug addicts serve this role of a scapegoat, much like the ridiculous war on terrorism too.
impdaddy
