As crack consumption continues to increase in Switzerland, many cities are denying the growing problems it raises in public spaces. In an interview at 7:30 pm, former Federation President Ruth Dreifuss returns to the need to care for consumers.
Derived from cocaine, crack is a cheap, highly addictive drug with devastating effects on those who use it. “It causes strong excitement quickly, but the fall is extremely brutal and painful,” explains Ruth Dreifuss, a former federal adviser and current member of the world commission on drug policy.
>> Read also: “Crack, we feel like we never have enough,” says a regular user
To solve the problems related to the sale and consumption of crack, the former president of the Federation recommends on Sunday at 7:30 pm to remove addicts from their situation by offering them support and liberating attitudes.
We need to get users out of the situation the drug has put them in.
Ruth Dreifuss
“The first thing to offer is life insurance help, because these are people who put themselves at risk: they don’t drink anymore, they don’t eat anymore, they don’t sleep anymore,” she says.
According to Ruth Dreifuss, also president of the association Change, which is currently piloting a trial of controlled sales of cannabis in Geneva for almost a year, there is no such urgency for suppression. “In the presence of the police, yes.
Regulation of consumption
In Graubünden, the Municipal Council of the City of Chur promotes the controlled distribution of cocaine, a proposal that is also supported by the Federal Commission on Addiction Issues. But other cantons are not so determined with this initiative and some of them, like Geneva, believe that cocaine is too harmful to distribute.
>> On the topic: To fight against crack, Chur wants to be able to supply cocaine to addicts
“Regulating the cocaine market and providing access to it is a difficult step. But prescribing heroin showed us that you can prescribe a quality drug to someone in need, and start a process that allows them to regain balance. life and social cohesion”, declares the former federal adviser.
However, the head of the Vaud State Health Department Rebecca Ruiz, contacted by RTS, considers that it seems difficult to reduce the risks of cocaine consumption without alternative treatment that works.
We must find other strategies to deal with this new drug, the one that causes the most harm among consumers.
Ruth Dreifuss
The four-pillar strategy
At the beginning of the 1990s, Switzerland adopted its four-pillar drug policy: suppression, harm reduction, therapy and prevention. Today, if Ruth Dreifuss is still defending this policy of which she is the initiator, she believes that it must be reshaped for the specific consumption of crack.
“While maintaining this philosophy of public health policy and human rights, we must find other strategies to deal with this new drug, the one that causes the most harm among consumers,” says Ruth Dreifuss.
>> Watch the 7:30 pm report on open drug scenes in Switzerland:
Many Swiss cities are asking for help to combat the return of open drug scenes and the rise in insecurity / 7:30 pm / 2 min. / yesterday at 7:30 pm
TV content: Gabriel De Weck
Web adaptation: Raphaël Dubois