Free heroin

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Switzerland has been issuing free heroin to addicts. The results have been surprising to many but not to me. First it has cut drug related crime by 42% for the blindingly obvious reason that they no longer have the need to steal. Second, it has increased the number of addicts wishing to give up or at least move on to methadone. A good example of once you stop condemning people, they might just listen to you. (In my own case, smoking would only be half the fun if people quit trying to make me stop.)

I like this; in a way it's all like the Ashford road experiment (Blog - 16/11/08) which is to say, that we should recognise and deal with people as they are and not as we would wish them to be.

I suspect that addicts would rather not be addicts deep down but crapping on them won't help by the very nature of addiction. Maybe this initiative will.