Alice Magazine NYC - Chapter 1

“When I became addicted to heroin, Platzspitz Park unfortunatly became my
home for years. This “needle park” was an apocalyptic vision, unbelievable in
every way. The smells and sights are beyond description and anything I have
ever experienced before or since. The masses of people shooting up everywhere
and shouting, it was crazy. Rats crawling over your feet and again as wide as
your eyes can see- a sea of people. the images are festered in my mind forever
and sometime still come up in my dreams. I lost a lot of friends to heroin and a
lot of them died in that park. “
-Anonymous Junkie
Due to an alarming heroin epidemic in the late eighties, the Swiss
government opened up Platzspitz Park in Zurich to heroin addicts to
use and buy the drug without police interference. Blaming addiction
on a health issue rather than a social pariah, they thought they were
providing a solution to addiction. The population grew to 20,000
addicts in the 5 years it was operating and the death toll among other
enormous health risks brought down the Needle Park.