Switzerland's Heroin Experiment

Article about a Swiss program which began to provide hard-core drug users with medically prescribed and monitored heroin, in 1994. Preliminary findings from the program included the fact that addicts' health improved but also that heroin prescription needs to be accompanied by social-psychological support measures. The Swiss government responded by expanding the program to include these supports. The author predicts that, as a harm reduction strategy, prescription heroin programs will be more effective at reducing the social, health and economic costs of drug use than the USA's "war on drugs".