Human beings and not drugs, need to be at the centre of drugs policy – so said the Swiss health minister, Alain Berset at the UN special session on the world drugs policy in New York.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Gaby Ochsenbein worked at Swiss Radio International and later at SWI swissinfo.ch from 1986 to 2018. She lives in Bern.
Berset outlined Switzerland’s four-pronged drugs strategy, which was met with controversy when it was introduced in 1991. However, since then it has been partly reproduced in many other countries.
For the last 25 years Switzerland has applied a four-pronged approach: prevention, therapy, damage limitation and repression. This pragmatic policy was born out of the Zurich drug problems of the 1980s and 1990s. In 1994 the Swiss first introduced the controlled prescription of heroin by doctors for the chronically addicted.
More
More
‘Without the heroin programme I’d probably be dead’
This content was published on
Switzerland has distributed heroin to addicts legally for the past 20 years. Around 1,500 people receive the drug under supervision.
Prevention: The public is educated with information, advice and national drug prevention programmes. In this way the consumption of drugs can be reduced.
Therapy: People with addiction disorders receive medical and psychological care. This can include the prescription of heroin. This enables former addicts to reintegrate in society and the workplace.
Damage control: To minimise the negative health and social consequences of drug consumption, cantons provide emergency centres or support private institutions. The distribution of clean needles is included in this service.
Control and repression: Enforcing measures that outlaw the use of illegal drugs reduces the negative consequences of drug consumption in society.
Berset complained that the final document to emerge from the summit did not condemn the use of death penalties for drugs offences in some countries. Addiction should be treated as a disease, not a crime, he said.
In an interviewExternal link with the German television station Deutsche Welle, Ruth Dreifuss, the-then health minister and current member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, criticised the UN’s tactics of using repression and bans to combat drug abuse. Instead, the focus should be on health, human rights policy and integration, she said. “We should also talk about the failure of drugs policy and be ready to tread new paths.”
More
More
‘The heroin programme is a kind of prestige project’
This content was published on
Doctor André Seidenberg, who has treated 3,500 patients suffering from addictions in his career, was one of the first to provide emergency help in Needle Park and to call for clean syringes to be given out to addicts. Police and the justice authorities tried to deal with the problem with repressive measures that failed to…
Is reforming the Swiss pension system still possible, and if so, how?
Solutions still need to be found to meet the challenge of an ageing population and to improve the pensions of low-paid workers, the majority of whom are women.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Swiss health minister open to cannabis distribution trials
This content was published on
In an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, Berset said that his department welcomes trying out “new models and directions” such as controlled cannabis trials, as long as the necessary special permits are sought. Cannabis consumption in Switzerland is currently punishable with a fine of CHF100 ($103). When asked whether such trials would open…
This content was published on
Two lawyers from Neuchâtel University have recently added their analysis to the case against the war on drugs. The current approach to combatting the trade and consumption of drugs dates back to 1961 when the United Nations ratified the only Convention on Drugs. The text put forward a global prohibition regime, including cannabis for the…
This content was published on
The report, written by a high-profile panel including former Swiss cabinet minister Ruth Dreifuss, criticises the repressive approach in the US and calls for the legalisation of some drugs and an end to the criminalisation of drug users. Instead of prohibition, the commission recommends “regulation models of illicit drugs designed to undermine the power of…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.