The use of crack in public spaces is causing increasing concern in Switzerland. Invited on the 7:30 p.m. set a few days ago, former Federal Councilor Ruth Dreifuss raised the possibility of prescribing cocaine to help addicts, as is done with heroin.
The cities of Lausanne, Yverdon, Geneva and Chur are all confronted with the scourge of crack cocaine, with consumers ever more present in public spaces, ever more addicted and even sometimes aggressive. Faced with this situation, the authorities are looking for solutions.
A few days ago, former Federal Councilor Ruth Dreifuss, guest on 7:30 p.m., supported the idea of prescribing cocaine, of which crack is a derivative (read framed), to help drug addicts.
>> Read also: Ruth Dreifuss: “Regulating the cocaine market and providing access to it is a difficult step to take”
A solution that Daniele Zullino, head of the Addictology Service at the Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry at HUG, also defends. “It’s especially a good idea if we want to attract clients into therapeutic programs. We currently have consumers who live on the street. We have to recover them and integrate them in a certain way into therapeutic programs.”
Caution of the authorities
But in French-speaking Switzerland, the authorities remain very cautious about this solution, as in Yverdon-les-Bains for example. “In principle, Yverdon-les-Bains is opposed to the controlled distribution of cocaine […]. However, it is interested in knowing the results of all the studies carried out elsewhere in this area,” said the Yverdon municipality.
If prescribing cocaine is scary, it’s worth a try for Frank Zobel, deputy director of Addiction Switzerland. “There are prescription issues, but we have doctors who are specialists in addictions in Switzerland. There is the Swiss Society for Addiction Medicine which is looking into this question. So, we can look at that and probably that we are going to have to do tests. This is what we have always done in Switzerland when we have new ideas in terms of drug policy.”
If the crisis persists, the solution of prescribing cocaine could perhaps see the light of day next year.
Camille Lanci and Cécile Durring/fgn
Swiss
