Social experiment in Zurich.....???

Question

Last night a friend of mine was talking about drug control and how to solve it. He told me that a few decades ago, maybe in the 60's, the Swiss gov't. conducted a "social experiment" in a red light district in Zurich. The gov't. provided drug addicts and junkies with heroin and clean needles to use whenever they wanted.. and most of the addicts died within a year. He said there was a book written about it but he couldn't remember the title. I call bullshit. Did this actually happen? And if there is a book, what's it called?

Answer 1

I think your friend was talking about the Swedish Drug Control Experiment that occured between 1965-1966, which was a non-scientific  experiment involving 120 people and conducted by a Dr. Nils Bejerot. As far as I know it was not done by the Government, but it was allowed by them. This experiment was considered a bust because it was unable to limit or decrease the amount of drug users, which was the original aim of the experiment. It did, however, open the doorways to new options for drug control.

For example, in the early 90's Switzerland started selling doses of heroin and clean needles to junkies who were A.) Unwilling or unable to quit, B.) Were not violent and C.) Were residents of the city of Zurich. Their aim wasn't to kill them all, and as far as I know claims of all the junkies dying within a year are unsubstantiated, but soon after parts of the Netherlands have done similiar things with the results being that there is less crime, less violence, less disease and less drug use than before. They are taking the power away from the illegal sale of narcotics and bringing the junkies into a safe, clean, centralized location where they are able to get counseling if desired, and at the very least shoot up in a sterile environment.