In 1985, Zurich’s cantonal medical officer Prof. Dr. Gonzaug Kistler announced that he would revoke the licenses of doctors who provided sterile syringes to people who injected substances. This ban and the authorities’ attitude toward substance users at the time cost thousands of lives. Many died completely unnecessarily from HIV or hepatitis B and C. We are still paying the billions in costs incurred by the healthcare system and the canton of Zurich.
Read the sad story in the Positivrat newsletter: (german text) positivrat.ch/40-jahre-spritzen-abgabe-verbot-in-zuerich/
English translation here