Switzerland set to approve prescription heroin as 'safe alternative' for addicts

The heroin programme has won support since it began 14 years ago (Photo posed by model)

A pioneering Swiss programme aimed to curb drug abuse by providing addicts with a clean, safe place to take heroin is expected to be made permanent by voters in a referendum on Sunday.



The programme has been criticised 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 systems modeled on the Swiss one, which is credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts.



It has won wide support within Switzerland since it began 14 years ago to eliminate scenes of large groups of drug users shooting up openly in parks that marred Swiss cities in the 1980s and 1990s.



Dr. Daniele Zullino's office, part of the Geneva University Hospitals, is one of 23 such centres in Switzerland.



The heroin is produced by a government-approved laboratory. Among the nearly 1,300 addicts whom other therapies have failed to help, patients take doses carefully measured to satisfy their cravings but not enough to cause a big high. Four at a time inject themselves as a nurse watches.



'Heroin prescription is not an end in itself,' said Dr. Zullino, noting that the 47 addicts who come to his office receive a series of additional treatments, such as therapy with a psychiatrist and counseling by social workers.



'The aim is that the patients learn how to function in society,' he said, adding that after participating in it for two to three years, one-third of the patients start abstinence-programmes and one-third change to methadone treatment.



'Thanks to this policy we don't have open drug scenes anymore,' said Andreas Kaesermann, a spokesman for the Social Democrat Party, part of the coalition government.



A mid-November survey of 1,209 voters by the respected gfs Bern research institute indicated it will be easily approved, with 63 per cent of voters favouring it compared with 21 per cent opposed.



Health insurance pays for the bulk of it, which costs 26 million Swiss francs ($22 million) a year. All residents in Switzerland are required to have health insurance, with the government paying insurance premiums for those who cannot afford it.



'It's wrong that the health insurance pays for this,' said Alain Hauert, spokesman for the right-wing Swiss People's Party. He said the state should invest more money in prevention and law enforcement.



Crimes committed by heroin addicts have dropped 60 per cent since it began in 1994, according to the Federal Office of Public Health.



Dr Zullino said patients reduce consumption of other narcotics once they start the programme and suffer less from psychiatric disorders.

But, he added, 'the idea has never been to liberalise heroin. It's considered a medicine and used as such.'



