Thursday, December 4, 2008

Good News From Switzerland

In Switzerland, over two-thirds of voters supported heroin provision to heavily addicted people. This is good news for those with a heroin problem, as the program saves lives, and it is also good news for the Swiss burghers who won't have their houses burgled as a result.

More importantly, it's good news for people in equivalent situations in a whole lot of countries. The overwhelming nature of the vote will send a message to jelly-backed politicians elsewhere. It is regrettable that a bill for legalization of cannabis went down at the same time, but in the long run I suspect the success will count for more than the defeat.

This is also very good news for the Greens. Personally I don't believe our policies are the major bar to electoral success. Lack of money and an absence of experience in government are bigger problems. Where our policies do get in the way its usually because they are badly written and need to be rethought.

However, there are some policies that do hurt our chances, and drugs and law and order are chief amongst them. The problem is that our policies here are basically right (give or take a bit of tweaking). They would save lives, cut crime and save money. We can't abandon them without selling our soul. Electorally they are a burden we have to bear, although of course writing them more clearly would reduce the damage.

So Switzerland's vote is very good news. For one thing it proves these are not policies the population will never accept. For another it gives us something to point to. Most people won't listen, but for a few, the fact that 68% of a developed nation backed something might make them question their knee-jerk opposition.

More to the point, this is a tide that will be very hard to hold back. Several other nations are considering adopting something similar. In a globalised world it will get harder and harder to scaremonger about a policy that not only exists in many comparable countries, but is demonstrably saving lives.

2 comments:

Mindy said...

Obviously there is more to the policy, how do they intend to help people wean themselves off the drug? I'm assuming that is part of the program? Anything that saves lives is fantastic, but I think there would need to be a strong element of 'this is how we are going about making them productive members of society again' here to get it approved.

Word verific: cones

Feral Sparrowhawk said...

I'm no expert on the policy details, but I'm confident its not just about giving someone free smack until they die of natural causes. It's about stabilizing one aspect of someone's life so they can get other things together, eventually getting them to the point where they can beat the habit.

I gather the success rate isn't outstanding, but since its only available for people who for whom other efforts have failed it looks pretty good compared to giving up on them.