Swiss voters choose neutrality in the war on drugs.

By Richard Estrada

The recent decision by Swiss voters to support the state distribution of
heroin is unlikely to challenge a growing global perception of the world's
most businesslike nation. The perception of a country whose love of
expediency has been misinterpreted as a love of principled neutrality.

Switzerland's vote of confidence in state heroin distribution merits a
reprise of George Santayana's hoary but relevant caveat: Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The decision by the Swiss to
ignore the record of previous governmental efforts to distribute heroin in
Western Europe can't bode well for that nation or its neighbors.

More than 20 years ago, Great Britain attempted to make heroin legally
available to hardcore addicts. Yet an inability to monitor the resale of
the drug, along with rising crime rates, has brought a near end to the
misadventure.

Westminster's fallback position was the controlled provision of the heroin
substitute methadone, which is made available on a prescription basis at
drug stores. Though also available in the United States, even methadone
programs reflect an expedient approach more concerned with accommodating
addiction rather than overcoming it.

The enablement of addiction isn't necessarily driven by the quality of
mercy toward the addict. Instead, it seems to be a presumed quick fix to
social problems stemming from heroin use. According to press reports, the
71 percent of Swiss voters who supported state heroin distribution at the
polls in late September wanted to reduce social problems such as property
crime and the incidence of AIDS. Drug policy experts place such goals under
the umbrella term "harm reduction."

But the Swiss study cited by proponents of an experimental heroin
distribution program for 1,100 hardcore addicts appears to have been
deeply flawed. According to Wayne Roques, a retired Drug Enforcement
Administration agent who now works as a consultant on antidrug efforts in
South Florida, the study rightly noted a reduction in property crime but
failed to note a simultaneous increase in violent crime.

"The drug legalization crowd sets up a straw man on the issue of drug use
and crime by individuals," says Mr. Roques. "They pretend that hard drugs
lead to problems with individual crime only because the users can't obtain
the drugs through legal channels."

Mr. Roques insists that hardcore heroin addicts typically fall short of
role model material. "What is conveniently overlooked is that hardcore
addicts are often destitute and will therefore engage in crime in order to
meet basic needs such as food and shelter," he notes.

Another category of crime that drug "decriminalizers" find convenient to
ignore is that of crime in the home. Heroin addicts may be more mellow than
hardcore cocaine users because of the inherent properties of heroin. But
decreased inhibitions or inattentiveness brought on by sustained heroin use
can result in the abuse or criminal neglect of spouses and children.

As for HIV, Mr. Roques says the study conducted in Switzerland painted a
rosy picture because it relied solely on the word of the heroin users.
There was no control group.

Fortunately, other European nations are standing firm. Even before the
Swiss heroin vote, the federal government in Germany formally rejected a
plan by the state of SchleswigHolstein to allow pharmacies to sell limited
quantities of marijuana and hashish on a trial basis. Federal officials
explained that the state plan had no effective way to prevent the resale of
the officially sanctioned drugs to kids "or in larger than permissible
quantities."

Perhaps Switzerland isn't as far gone as it appears from this side of the
Atlantic. Perhaps a genuine desire to do the compassionate thing has
temporarily misled its citizens, or at least 71 percent of the 40 percent
of eligible voters who just said yes to heroin distribution. Yet just as
surrender will not do in fighting the drug was, neither will expediency
masquerading as compassionate neutrality.