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1 Eur. J. on Crim. Pol'y & Rsch. 48 (1993)
The Needle Park in Zurich: The Story and the Lessons to Be Learned

handle is hein.journals/eurjcpr1 and id is 168 raw text is: The needle park in Zurich The story and the lessons to be learned Peter J. Grob' The changing drug scene In the late seventies users of illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine (hard drugs) began to assemble, initially in scattered groups, around the so-called Riviera, a riverside location in the centre of ZUrich (phase 1). By 1980 and 1981 however, concentrations of 100-400 drug users in the evenings were not uncommon. The period between 1982 and 1987 saw police attempts to disperse any concentrations of drug users in the streets (phase 2). At various downtown locations small 'open street scenes' flourished, dissolved and reconstituted themselves within a few weeks or months. Tired of chasing the addicts from one place to another, the police then decided to designate the Platzspitz as a tolerated but supervised zone for drug users (phase 3). This public recreational park behind ZUrich's main train station is flanked by two converging rivers and thus easily controllable. Within a few months hundreds of individuals gathered daily resulting in the Platzspitz becoming one of the greatest open street scene of the western world. The park was later termed 'needle park' by the media - with a daily average of 700 users visiting in the winter months and 1500 in the summer months of 1989. This swelled to a daily average of 1700-2500 individuals in 1991. In February 1992, the Platzspitz was closed (phase 4). At first the police tried again to disperse any gatherings of drug users, with limited success. During the spring and early summer of 1992 almost on the hour small clusters of 20-100 individuals formed at various places of the highly populated neighbouring area Kreis S but were dispersed almost immediately. By late 1992, smaller open drug scenes of 100-200 individuals were tolerated for a few days or weeks, mainly due to a shortage of police personnel. Overall, the visibility of the 'drug problem' has dropped markedly 1 Professor at the Department of Medicine, Clinical Immunology, University Hospital, Haldeliweg 4, 8044 Zurich, Switzerland. He was one of the members of the Aids prevention programme within the park.

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