The Normalization of Swiss Drug Policies

Abstract

The Swiss drug policy strategy has been praised for its innovative pragmatism. It reflects a transformation of the way we look at drugs by focusing on health and by eclipsing the moral background of the drug use context. In this model, help is no longer conditional on the obedience of the person being helped to the norm of the helper. Harm reduction cancels out the norm that defines the different addictions, which makes it possible to broaden the horizon of the intervention to the whole range of behaviors that can be described in terms of addiction. It leads to a global strategy aimed at creating conditions favorable to health as a variable determined by our behavior. Harm reduction introduces the notion of competence, implying the provision of a certain number of framework conditions favoring individual responsibility. The identification of signs of possible psychosocial impairment becomes everyone's business. Addiction policy tends to focus on visibility, reintroducing an ideological valorization of successful behavior, compatible with the economy. Stigmatization is reintroduced in the evaluation of each person's capacity for autonomy, which is unequally distributed.