It is a harm reduction measure that was controversial at first, but has since proved effective and has convinced many former opponents of any kind of liberalisation. In the Netherlands there was simultaneously admiration for the Swiss and jealousy. We should nonetheless bear in mind that heroin prescription is an artefact of drug prohibition. If we had a more sensible system for regulating the drug market, there would be no need for medically controlled distribution.
Medical prescription can never fully fill the demand for drugs.
Only the most problematic drug users are accepted in the programmes. The demand on the part of less problematic and recreational users will never be met by either their own physicians or the public medical facilities. That part of the drug problem can only be resolved by a coherent drug policy that addresses medical and non-medical use alike. Lack of repressive policy evaluation We are discussing the results of the Swiss and other projects and various research designs for new projects, and I would like to point out what I consider a disturbing and unacceptable discrepancy between the demands for the scientific evaluation of repressive and of liberal policies. Of course new harm reduction methods should be judged by the scientific forum if they are to be acceptable to the public, to politicians, and to the international agencies.