Robert Maginnis

About the author: Robert Maginnis is a senior policy adviser with the Family Research Council. He visited five Swiss heroin clinics during the Swiss experiment of supplying addicts with heroin.

Baltimore is considering adopting a heroin maintenance program such as the one that Switzerland established during a twoyear experiment in which the Swiss government provided addicts with heroin for a nominal fee. Heroin maintenance programs are based on the false belief that creating a drug-free society is impossible, and that "harm reduction"—reducing the negative effects of drug use, such as poor health and crime—is the only solution to the drug problem. The Swiss claim that maintenance programs improve the health of addicts, allow them to live normal lives, and reduce crime. But the Swiss experiment was flawed because it did...