Sunday, November 30, 2008
News Criticized by the United States
Posted by Dan Savage on Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 6:09 PM
This sentence in an AP story caught my eye on Saturday:
The program has been criticized by the United States and the U.N. narcotics board, which said it would fuel drug abuse.
Hm... you can safely assume that any drug policy criticized by the United States is a good idea, and this case is no exception. The quote in context:
Dr. Daniele Zullino keeps glass bottles full of white powder in a safe in a locked room of his office. Patients show up each day to receive their treatment in small doses handed through a small window.Then they gather around a table to shoot up, part of a pioneering Swiss program to curb drug abuse by providing addicts a clean, safe place to take heroin produced by a government-approved laboratory.
The program has been criticized by the United States and the U.N. narcotics board, which said it would fuel drug abuse. But governments as far away as Australia are beginning or considering their own programs modeled on the system, which is credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts.
Swiss voters are expected to make the system permanent Sunday in a referendum prompted by a challenge from conservatives.
Which is just what Swiss voters did today:
A pioneering Swiss program to give addicts government-authorized heroin was overwhelmingly approved Sunday.... Sixty-eight percent of voters approved making the heroin program permanent. It has been credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts since it began 14 years ago.
Sadly, the Swiss also voted down an initiative that would've legalized marijuana.
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1
WOW! The Swiss are as fucking inconsistant with how they vote on ballot initiatives as us Americans.
3
What was the challenge from the conservatives? It took them 14 years to decide it wasn't a good idea?
The vote keeping marajuana illegal...that is inconsistent.
I would definitely still smoke in a laboratory. I don't have to have a comfortable chair/couch with great music and soft lighting.
The vote keeping marajuana illegal...that is inconsistent.
I would definitely still smoke in a laboratory. I don't have to have a comfortable chair/couch with great music and soft lighting.
4
@1: I spent two weeks in Zürich on business not too long ago... and you're not far off. Shortly after returning to the US, I blogged my thoughts on Zürich (and on Switzerland in general, from what I was able to glean of it). See especially "Cool: Walkability" and "Not Cool: Uptightness" for the relevant bits.
5
I'm waiting in the waiting room for my doc.
I'm waiting in the waiting room for my doc.
31.1662034 Swiss francs in my hand.
I'm waiting in the waiting room for my doc.
I'm waiting in the waiting room for my doc.
31.1662034 Swiss francs in my hand.
7
That is a little weird. On the one hand, the Swiss seem to understand that drug addiction is not so much a moral failing as it is a physical sickness, but on the other hand still seem just as stuck up as Americans on whether smoking a plant is somehow a greater vice than guzzling down the distilled essence of some other plant. Go figure.
Still, imagine how much less crime we'd encounter in this country if only we were sensible enough to see the cost-benefit of just giving addicts a fix, rather than having them constantly rip us off in order to get the funds to afford a fix.
Still, imagine how much less crime we'd encounter in this country if only we were sensible enough to see the cost-benefit of just giving addicts a fix, rather than having them constantly rip us off in order to get the funds to afford a fix.
8
I coordinate a needle exchange in a large city in the US and I can't tell you how badly we need a program like this in America. In my state alone opiate overdoses are the second leading cause of death! Plus with drugs regulated in a Swiss system there would be less needle sharing and less discarded needles lying around for people to get stuck on. Plus the savings in health care alone would make the system self-sufficient. Image all the financial costs associated with illicit drug use: everything from complications of Hep C and HIV, not to mention overdoses, abcesses, and injuries from drug related violent crime. But we'll be lucky if we even see needle exchanges in prisons (or hell even CONDOMS in prison) before the US adopts such an approach.
9
I think the Swiss just don't want addicts on the street, making things dirty. From what I understand anyway.
10
My recollection is that the UK had a very similar program to this in the 60s and 70s, but it was swiftly killed by the Thatcherites. Of course as well all know, heroin addiction thereafter cased to be a problem in Great Britain.
11
Oh and you had to look all the way to Switzerland to find this instead of looking at Vancouver Canada just north of you.
Insite – Supervised Injection Site
http://www.vch.ca/sis/
Insite – Supervised Injection Site
http://www.vch.ca/sis/
12
#11:
Insite is a mainlining merry-go-round!
"Usage
• 750 - 800 visits per day (!!)
• 257,575 visits per year
• Average of 11 visits per month, per person
• More than 10,000 unique individuals registered at Insite to date"
http://www.vch.ca/sis/docs/insite_number…
Insite is a mainlining merry-go-round!
"Usage
• 750 - 800 visits per day (!!)
• 257,575 visits per year
• Average of 11 visits per month, per person
• More than 10,000 unique individuals registered at Insite to date"
http://www.vch.ca/sis/docs/insite_number…
15
@12 "Insite is a mainlining merry-go-round!" ???
and the Swiss program will be just the same, yes people will go there to "safely Shoot up. That is the idea since shooting up on the street and sharing needles is the problem. Yes Addicts will use it regularly but they also will get help getting off the drugs and more importantly will not reuse needles and throw them on the street. Vancouver has it's problems with needles littering the streets, especially in my neighborhood adjacent to the Downtown lower east side which I pass through each day.
Your comment "Insite is a mainlining merry-go-round!" sounds like nothing good is coming from a safe injection site but peoples lives are being saved because of it until something else can be done. Calling it a "merry-go-round!" is just you being manipulated by a negative media which there is lots of here in Vancouver since our conservative government (equivalent to Republican) wants to shut Insite down.
Just because Insite has many people using it does not mean it is a "merry-go-round!", implying it is bad. It keeps people that are sick from drug abuse and mental illness from dying by giving a clean place to deal with addiction. No using a shared needles as is done in alleys if Insite is not there.
It just reflects the major problem Vancouver has in its down town lower east side which most people do not realize is the worst in North America.
and the Swiss program will be just the same, yes people will go there to "safely Shoot up. That is the idea since shooting up on the street and sharing needles is the problem. Yes Addicts will use it regularly but they also will get help getting off the drugs and more importantly will not reuse needles and throw them on the street. Vancouver has it's problems with needles littering the streets, especially in my neighborhood adjacent to the Downtown lower east side which I pass through each day.
Your comment "Insite is a mainlining merry-go-round!" sounds like nothing good is coming from a safe injection site but peoples lives are being saved because of it until something else can be done. Calling it a "merry-go-round!" is just you being manipulated by a negative media which there is lots of here in Vancouver since our conservative government (equivalent to Republican) wants to shut Insite down.
Just because Insite has many people using it does not mean it is a "merry-go-round!", implying it is bad. It keeps people that are sick from drug abuse and mental illness from dying by giving a clean place to deal with addiction. No using a shared needles as is done in alleys if Insite is not there.
It just reflects the major problem Vancouver has in its down town lower east side which most people do not realize is the worst in North America.
16
Hey politikjunkie -- can you say what city you're in? We may know each other...
And besides Insite, Vancouver is home to NAOMI (N. American Opiate Maintenance Initiative), which also does prescription heroin and is providing very compelling data on the efficacy of heroin maintenance.
And besides Insite, Vancouver is home to NAOMI (N. American Opiate Maintenance Initiative), which also does prescription heroin and is providing very compelling data on the efficacy of heroin maintenance.
17
I suggest that Insite be combined with an Assisted Suicide service. This would give junkies a chance to either live a life of constant maintenace or to end it all right there. The two sides of the clinic would share needle technologies...for cost reasons. Society would benefit both by reducing crimes with maintenance, or eliminating the problem entirely with a.s.
18
I live just down the street from one of these injection centers/heroin dispensaries in Switzerland. The place is remarkably well-regulated; its ick-factor footprint on the city is minimal. I do tend to walk on the other side of the street at "feeding time," but it doesn't really feel unsafe. There are two burly security guards there at all times who strictly enforce the no-loitering policy. They also control that no dealing is going on inside the premises.
The building itself is set up to fit in with the chic center of town surrounding it. Part of the center is designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, and includes a big walled-off area for shooting up and eventual loitering. Their needles stay inside the walls, mostly. The addicts, instead of spending all their time trying to find money for their next fix, can use their time to try to get their life together, get stabilized, and eventually get off the drug. No one wants to be a heroin addict. Especially in Switzerland. It is seen here as a drug for losers or junkies. The participants in this program are the ones who have failed every other rehab method; they have been addicted and in the system for over ten years.
The building itself is set up to fit in with the chic center of town surrounding it. Part of the center is designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, and includes a big walled-off area for shooting up and eventual loitering. Their needles stay inside the walls, mostly. The addicts, instead of spending all their time trying to find money for their next fix, can use their time to try to get their life together, get stabilized, and eventually get off the drug. No one wants to be a heroin addict. Especially in Switzerland. It is seen here as a drug for losers or junkies. The participants in this program are the ones who have failed every other rehab method; they have been addicted and in the system for over ten years.
19
SwissMiss: I live in Hamburg, Germany, also quite near to one of these types of stations. My neighbors aren't nearly as good at crowd control, and the building sure as hell isn't by Herzog & de Meuron, but it is a definite net positive for the downtown area. People are able to get their fix and a hot meal there, and from what I've heard it has really cut down on junkies breaking into cars to get money as well as weakened the organized criminals who sell heroin in the city.
It's not at all surprising that Zürich was a forerunner on this, because from what I've heard the late 80s were truly horrific there in terms of the addict population. The fact that the city is located right in the middle of Europe combined with the typically laid-back attitude toward other peoples' habits made Zürich a magnet for "heroin tourism" - junkies came from Italy, Germany, Austria, Hungary to live there. I met a guy who was one of the first social workers to start distributing clean needles, since he was tired of seeing peoples' flesh rot away from bad heroin and dirty needles; he was arrested a couple of times for "providing drug paraphanalia" before his bosses at the police department started to realize how good his strategy was.
I think these kinds of services will always have an "ick factor" but really, I've talked to a couple of people who use the station and sometimes hang out on the front steps of my building. They are in and out of homelessness, unable to keep jobs, abandoned by everyone they used to know and love - these people are at rock bottom, and it would be ridiculous to insist on either rehab or dying in the streets as their only possible fates.
It's a small mercy for them that these kinds of programs exist.
It's not at all surprising that Zürich was a forerunner on this, because from what I've heard the late 80s were truly horrific there in terms of the addict population. The fact that the city is located right in the middle of Europe combined with the typically laid-back attitude toward other peoples' habits made Zürich a magnet for "heroin tourism" - junkies came from Italy, Germany, Austria, Hungary to live there. I met a guy who was one of the first social workers to start distributing clean needles, since he was tired of seeing peoples' flesh rot away from bad heroin and dirty needles; he was arrested a couple of times for "providing drug paraphanalia" before his bosses at the police department started to realize how good his strategy was.
I think these kinds of services will always have an "ick factor" but really, I've talked to a couple of people who use the station and sometimes hang out on the front steps of my building. They are in and out of homelessness, unable to keep jobs, abandoned by everyone they used to know and love - these people are at rock bottom, and it would be ridiculous to insist on either rehab or dying in the streets as their only possible fates.
It's a small mercy for them that these kinds of programs exist.
20
You will never make human nature illegal and succeed. You will also take away from terrorists a major money maker by creating programs like this. Sometimes American democracy is counterintuitive.
22
More news from the Swiss elections: Pitbulls and other Devil Dogs outlawed in Zürich!
raisedbywolves: yes.
raisedbywolves: yes.
23
the swiss are miserable people. they won't legalize pot, because they don't you, or anyone else, to visit them ever.
due to the misery, the smack problem there is the worst i've seen in any first world country. horrors.
due to the misery, the smack problem there is the worst i've seen in any first world country. horrors.
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