IT was reported (C-M, Dec 1) that 84 percent of Swiss voters had opposed
the legalisation of hard drugs. The vote is very significant in the context
of that nation's experiments with liberal drug policies. It is a telling
blow to the so-called harm minimisation approach.

In 1989, the Swiss Government established an elaborate social service
network for addicts in a central park in Zurich, later to become known
worldwide as Needle Park.

Addicts were offered counselling, help with employment, free condoms,
needles, syringes, medical aid, blankets, food and clothing. Free needles
were distributed in exchange for used ones. Needle supply reached an
average 7800 a day and the problem became a nightmare. Drugs were bought,
sold and consumed 24 hours a day and 50 percent of addicts tested positive
to HIV despite free needles.

Zurich's city authorities finally admitted the experiment had failed and
closed the park in 1992. There also was a similar experiment with liberal
drug policies in the Letten district in Zurich. A publlc outcry over
several drug-related murders and assaults led to the closing down of the
Letten drug scene also.

Many people who experiment with a drug are not harmed by the first use but
all who end up victims of drug use began by experimenting. Not one of them
anticipated serious harm.

At a recent conference on drugs in Brisbane, it was heart-rending to hear
teenage heroin addicts speak about their addictions. They were very angry
that no one had told them of the dangers of marijuana and other so-called
soft drugs.

Harm-minimisatlon and liberalisation policies result in enormous increases
in drug use, crime and attendant problems. Countries that have implemented
such policies bear out this fact.

C. Whittred, Keperra. December 1

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski