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Time - Man of the Year
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1992-08-28
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WORLD, Page 53World NotesSWITZERLANDClosed: Needle Park
In an effort to stem the alarming rise in AIDS cases among
drug users, Zurich, along with a few other cities in Switzerland,
began an experiment three years ago in drug tolerance. Addicts
were permitted to sell, buy or use drugs in the city's downtown
park, the Platzspitz. Needle Park, as it quickly became known,
attracted up to 4,000 drug users a day. Health officials freely
distributed clean needles along with counsel on social and
medical services.
The program worked: by early this year, the incidence of
new AIDS cases had dropped from 50% to 5%. (Overall, 20% of
Zurich's addicts have tested HIV positive.) Trouble was, the
Platzspitz also became a magnet for professional dealers,
especially Lebanese, Yugoslav and Turkish gangs that overran
small dealers in a violent price war.
Amid complaints of rising crime, Zurich officials last
week shut down Needle Park for good. Some users clustered
around the central train station, others headed off in search
of methadone. With sales suddenly back underground, addicts
complained that the price of heroin had doubled overnight to
$214 a gram. Healthworkers said efforts to prevent AIDS would
be much more difficult.