Switzerland Approves Prescription Heroin

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.

Olivier Borer, 35, a musician from the northern town of Solothurn, said he welcomed the outcome in part because state action was required to help heroin addicts but legalizing marijuana was a bad idea.

The so-called “Hemp Initiative” would have freed the Swiss to use and grow cannabis for their own use, putting the country on a par with the Netherlands, which has the most liberal drug laws in Europe. Switzerland’s ruling coalition parties were split over the plan, with opponents including the dominant Swiss People’s Party fearing such a law would spark cannabis tourism.

Although the new drug policy has cleared parliamentary hurdles, voters must now approve it in a referendum on Sunday.

Opinion polls suggest voters are likely to approve the plan, which would make Switzerland the world's first country to include it in government policy.

But another proposal to decriminalise cannabis is not likely to pass.

Switzerland has had an experimental heroin prescription programme for over a decade.

The patients are a selection of hard-core drug addicts; they are not average drug addicts. According to the existing law and the new law, the minimum criteria for someone to join this scheme is that they have experienced two years of addiction and had at least two failed withdrawal attempts.