Daylife/AP Photo by Anja Niedringhaus
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A pioneering Swiss program to give addicts government-authorized heroin was overwhelmingly approved Sunday by voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana.
Sixty-eight percent of voters approved making the heroin program permanent. It has been credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts since it began 14 years ago.
Only 36.8 percent of voters favored the marijuana intitiative…
Parliament approved the heroin measure in a revision of Switzerland’s narcotics law this past March, but conservatives challenged the decision and forced a national referendum under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy.
Neither vote surprised me. Still an advance over policies that only benefit moralists and gangsters.
# 31 Atropa said, “They did the same thing, in Sweden?”
Yes, they also found that fully 23% of all violent crimes in Sweden are now committed by drug users…
Yes, they also found that fully 23% of all violent crimes in Sweden are now committed by drug users…
As opposed to the 93% in the US?
#32 – Paddy-BULLSHIT
>>Yes, they also found that fully 23% of all
>>violent crimes in Sweden are now committed
>>by drug users…
Oh “they” did, did “they”? I suppose you have a link to back that bullshit up? LOL! LOL!!! LOL!!!!
The figures I read put it more in the 10% – 15% ballpark, which means 85% – 90% of violent crimes are NOT committed by drug abusers.
And once you get into that challenging freshman year of high school, you’ll learn some really neat-o stuff, like “correlation does not imply causation”.
In a society where drugs are illegal, drug users are, by definition, criminals. And as criminals, they are more likely to associate with other criminals, and not just drug-using criminals. So by throwing the occasional doobie smoker or cocaine snorter in with stone-cold killers from the drug cartel, you get a little culture-sharing, and a whole new generation of criminals.
Mission Accomplished! You neocons must be so proud. I know, because you regularly hero-worship Anal Cyst Limbaugh, an addict of the first water.
Liberal this
Liberal that
Swiss are lame
Swiss are phat
Let’s not forget the conservative solution to alcohol
Distribute with TAX!
Let’s not forget the conservative solution to tobacco
Distribute with TAX!
Oh those Swiss I do like their cheese
#32–Paddy-O==that statistic even if true means nothing until one knows the percentage of drug users in the population.
Whats that number?
As long as alcohol is legal, then all this illegal drug moralizing is hypocritical claptrap.
The Swiss have found a system of dealing with heroin addiction that seems to work for them and causes the least harm to both addicts and society.
All the DU pointy heads can come up with is a ‘take out the trash’ which costs a fortune in tax dollars to keep offenders in criminal college, encourages addicts to steal your shit to feed their habit, fosters organized crime and funds terrorist organizations. Clearly genius at work.
A heroin addict who has reliable access to clean heroin is perfectly capable of leading a productive life. It’s only the addicts who can’t afford their fix that make it into the crime statistics.
#28 – Matto
Fuckin’ A right! Look at Dr. House!
#27, Alex,
Very true. Addiction is something that requires more than occasional visits to a group session to cure. And Ron and I both said that.
Whatever, throwing addicts into general population does not help them and has the unfortunate benefit of turning them into career criminals.
Assistance for a chronic disease shouldn’t stop once the symptoms are gone. Long term assistance is usually required, much more than six months.
*
I, however, am not a mental health expert, unlike Paddy-O. He is an expert on everything. His 23% of violent crimes are committed by drug abusers, for example. Since alcohol is also a drug that means 77% of all crimes are done by non drinkers in Sweden. He is an expert, who are we to disagree?
Interesting idea. Junkies belong to their dealers. Now they belong to the swiss government.
41,
ANd under that IDEA…
If they DONT have a JOB, you can GIVE them one, and ALL their money goes BACK to the gov for drugs..
the IDEA works, If you can change them to the REAL uncut stuff, or at least a MORE Pure cut..
The Gov can monitor the amount a person is getting and ALSO send them for MEDICAL if needed.
Do you know what its LIKE in the USA to get Medical coverage if you have a HABIT?? ITS CALLED JAIL..
I am astonished at this.
Are the Swiss people trying to prove how stupid they are?
Legalize Heroin, but vote to keep marijuana illegal?
That is possibly one of the most stupid things I have ever heard of in my life!
That is like saying “We will outlaw cap pistols and make it legal for children to own machine guns”!!!!
God those people are a bunch of MORONS!
#38, you are full of shit. If you have gone from recreational to addict, you aren’t productive.
And Paddy, I see a lot of parents who want their kids on psych drugs because they are too hard to handle, too hard to discipline or aren’t doing well in school. They also want to send their kids away to treatment or boot camps if the drugs don’t work. I tend to think that parents should have to go through a parenting class and counseling of their own before the kids are put on psychotropics, but it isn’t my call. You shouldn’t make assumptions.
Mr. Mustard, it is rather hard in this day and age to not be aware of what shooting up heroin will do to you. I think everyone deserves A chance. What gets really old is multiple relapses over and over. And I am not talking about your homeless junkies. I am talking about the people that go to their manufacturing jobs day in and day out that are high as hell and building shit that you buy, you drive and you fly. How’s that as food for thought? I don’t have much sympathy anymore and I am planning on getting out of this field as fast as I can Mustard.
Of course. You’re right. But then, are you talking about Swederland or Switzen?
I see stupid people. 6 months in a jail cell with no drugs, does nothing for obsessive compulsive mind set. Once free they will go back to business as usual.
I applaud the Swiss effort of trying a different approach to a problem versus the approach that yields the same resultsher over and over.
The failure to legalize Marijuana was a mistake in my opinion, but that is another issue.
Sooner or later a main line injector of any drug will run out of places to accept the injections as veins fail. For them and others they will eventually hit rock bottom or die trying. Those who don’t die will gain the mind set of abstinence and seek help.
Legalize it all and tax hell out of it.