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Switzerland's Liberal Drug Policy Seems To Work, Study Says
Medical News Today ^ | 02 Jun 2006 | Joe Santangelo

Posted on 06/03/2006 12:37:09 PM PDT by 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."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: addiction; bongbrigade; drugs; drugskilledbelushi; heroin; knowyourleroy; leroyknowshisrights; losertarians; mrleroy; switzerland; warondrugs; wod; wodlist
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1 posted on 06/03/2006 12:37:11 PM PDT by Know your rights
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To: Know your rights
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.
2 posted on 06/03/2006 12:40:15 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative
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To: Gay State Conservative
Swiss get a closeup look at meth.Their "progressive" attitude toward drugs might backfire....badly...with meth

And ours is working?
.
3 posted on 06/03/2006 12:44:23 PM PDT by mugs99 (Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive.)
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To: Gay State Conservative
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.

4 posted on 06/03/2006 12:44:50 PM PDT by AntiGuv ("..I do things for political expediency.." - Sen. John McCain on FOX News)
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To: Gay State Conservative
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?

5 posted on 06/03/2006 12:48:57 PM PDT by Know your rights (The modern enlightened liberal doesn't care what you believe as long as you don't really believe it.)
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To: mugs99
Well, Singapore's drug program works pretty well too and has a far, far better success rate than Switzerland's.


6 posted on 06/03/2006 12:50:02 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (crime would drop like a sprung trapdoor if we brought back good old-fashioned hangings)
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To: mugs99
And ours is working?

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

7 posted on 06/03/2006 12:50:18 PM PDT by Know your rights (The modern enlightened liberal doesn't care what you believe as long as you don't really believe it.)
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To: Vigilanteman
Singapore's drug program works pretty well

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

8 posted on 06/03/2006 12:51:21 PM PDT by Know your rights (The modern enlightened liberal doesn't care what you believe as long as you don't really believe it.)
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To: Ken H
Ken, don't you have statistics on the "success" of Singapore's drug policy?
9 posted on 06/03/2006 12:52:34 PM PDT by Know your rights (The modern enlightened liberal doesn't care what you believe as long as you don't really believe it.)
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To: Know your rights
Theodore Dalrymple has an interesting take on heroin addiction.
10 posted on 06/03/2006 12:55:44 PM PDT by KayEyeDoubleDee (const Tag &referenceToConstTag)
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To: Vigilanteman

LOL, I keep seeing that "noose" lately.


11 posted on 06/03/2006 12:57:56 PM PDT by wolficatZ (Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle -"You'll hang for this!")
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To: Vigilanteman
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.
.
12 posted on 06/03/2006 1:00:44 PM PDT by mugs99 (Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive.)
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To: Know your rights

SOMALIA: Libertarian Paradise.

13 posted on 06/03/2006 1:02:02 PM PDT by martin_fierro (FRee Charles Henrickson!)
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To: martin_fierro
SOMALIA: Libertarian Paradise

No, Somalia is a Theocratic paradise.
.
14 posted on 06/03/2006 1:05:06 PM PDT by mugs99 (Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive.)
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To: martin_fierro
SOMALIA: Libertarian Paradise.

In what sense is Somalia "libertarian"?

15 posted on 06/03/2006 1:06:43 PM PDT by Know your rights (The modern enlightened liberal doesn't care what you believe as long as you don't really believe it.)
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To: Know your rights

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


16 posted on 06/03/2006 1:10:34 PM PDT by wildcatf4f3 (Islam Schmislam blahblahblah, enough already!)
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To: Know your rights

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.


17 posted on 06/03/2006 1:19:01 PM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
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To: wildcatf4f3
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.
.
18 posted on 06/03/2006 1:22:35 PM PDT by mugs99 (Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive.)
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To: WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
Do you equate Medical News Today with the mainstream media?
19 posted on 06/03/2006 1:23:34 PM PDT by andrew2527
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To: Gay State Conservative
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.

20 posted on 06/03/2006 1:25:27 PM PDT by corkoman
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