I think that this is wrong. Also I think that lumping marijuana with heroin fails the pragmatic test. The separation of cannabis from other drugs is essential to any successful policy. I would not want to buy cannabis from the same place that sells heroin or cocaine.
See
"Here, if you want cannabis you go to a coffee shop.
In other countries if you want it you have to go to a man who might try to sell you heroin or cocaine as well."
and
Why Marijuana? Why Is There a Separate Marijuana Reform Movement?
Why Isn’t Just Preaching Freedom Enough?

In any case, the Swiss are already dealing humanely with their hard drug addicts, and seem likely to legalize cannabis. Now the legalization of marijuana seems like the moderate course that it really is.)

November 29, 1998

Swiss Turn Back Bid To Legalize Drugs
By Michael Shields
ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss voters Sunday rejected by a thumping three-to-one margin a sweeping proposal to legalize narcotics that backers said would eliminate the drugs mafia but critics said would make Switzerland a drugs haven.

The plan would have made Switzerland the only country in the world where anyone aged 18 or older could buy narcotics of their choice, from marijuana to heroin, from state-run outlets or pharmacies after consulting a physician.

With all 26 cantons (states) reporting, the measure had not carried a single canton and had garnered the support of only 26.1 percent of votes cast.

The proposal had been widely expected to fail, but the drubbing that voters administered at the polls disappointed organizers who were hoping a sizeable minority would support making the liberal Swiss drugs policy even more tolerant.

"I am very disappointed. We had expected a much better result," said Francois Reusser, co-organizer of the committee that collected enough signatures to trigger the referendum under the Swiss system of direct democracy.

"We were unable to mobilize a wide range of (drugs) consumers themselves, the dope-smokers and ravers, or there would have been a different outcome," he told Reuters.

Thomas Zeltner, director of the Federal Health Bureau in Berne, saw the vote as popular confirmation of Switzerland’s policy of combating the drugs trade but helping the most severe drug addicts.

"We have to continue the discussion about the legalization of cannabis. There is now such a big gap between the legal regulation of cannabis and reality that we need to act," he said, adding draft legislation due next year would address this.

The Swiss government and other opponents had called the initiative an extreme measure that would fuel addiction and isolate Switzerland from international police and justice cooperation.

But backers said drugs prohibition had failed to stop the supply, instead creating a black market with no health standards and high prices that forced addicts into theft or prostitution to fund their habit.

Launched by a committee of drugs experts, doctors and lawyers, the referendum proposal was backed by leftist politicians and youth chapters of two of three conservative parties in the Swiss government center-right coalition.

Final results from another referendum Sunday’s ballot showed voters approved spending 30.5 billion Swiss francs ($21.69 billion) to build a network of tunnels through the Alps.

Government officials are warning that a yes vote could turn this tranquil Alpine nation into a "paradise for the Mafia," and a magnet for "drug tourists," attracted by readily available hard and soft drugs.

Proponents of the drug legalization initiative, led by a group of Socialists and medical doctors, argue that it could break up Switzerland’s flourishing black market in drugs and save the country hundreds of millions of dollars in law enforcement.

They propose to give every Swiss resident over 18 an electronic credit card to withdraw a specified amount of drugs. The dosage would be set in consultation with a doctor or other medical professional, but no psychological or medical treatment would be mandated. Only those younger than 18 would be required to see a drug counselor before receiving an access card.

The card, explained a Zurich physician, David Winizki, an originator of the concept, "would be like making a withdrawal from a bank cash terminal."

"The dose would be programmed in," he continued. "The consumer would run the card with its magnetic strip through the machine and the drug store would supply, for example, a gram of heroin for 12 Swiss francs." A gram of heroin or cocaine now costs about $36 on the street and 12 Swiss francs equals about $8.70.

Under the plan, a user could withdraw drugs daily, or up to one week’s supply, for an amount lower than current street rates. Winizki, who lives near the area of Zurich once known as "Needle Park" for its gathering of heroin addicts, said he began working on the idea in 1992 when he saw "people dying every day from overdoses and hepatitis and that made me very angry."

Opinion polls indicate that only about 40 percent of Swiss support the liberalization idea. That would suggest passage is unlikely. But the drug issue pervades Switzerland, where federal statistics count between 30,000 and 36,000 narcotics addicts, most of them using heroin.

Unlike other European countries that tolerate cannabis consumption, Switzerland pursues and punishes it. Last year, four out of five arrests were for marijuana and hashish use. Penalties range from one day to three months in jail for second-time users, and up to three years for heavy users, according to federal police.

(Marijuananews note: This seems to vary greatly from canton to canton. By the way, when this Times story ran in the Dallas Morning News the section on cannabis legalization was omitted.)

Government officials say they fear that drug liberalization will eviscerate their efforts to address Switzerland’s serious drug problem. Figures from the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction in Lisbon suggest that drug use in Switzerland is among the highest in Europe, eclipsed only by Italy, Spain and tiny Luxembourg in drug use per 1,000 adults.

Switzerland’s drug problems were exposed when authorities experimented with open access to drugs in Zurich beginning in 1989. When drug dealing and violence escalated, Swiss officials abandoned the free needles and syringes and began an experimental program to dispense heroin to a controlled group of hard-core addicts. This controversial effort survived a ballot challenge last year, when an unexpectedly high 71 percent endorsed it.

Federal officials say they fear, though, that legalization will make it harder to curb hard drug use.

"Switzerland would become a paradise for the Mafia," said Thomas Zeltner, who heads the federal health department.

The country would end up isolated from international crime-fighting efforts, and money laundering would increase, said Valentin Roschacher, the federal anti-drug chief. "You can’t fight organized crime without partners," he said in a telephone interview from the capital, Bern.