Ruth Dreifuss is Switzerland’s former president and home affairs minister. Taking inspiration from John Marks’s heroin prescription program in the U.K., Dreifuss pioneered Switzerland’s innovative, highly effective system of heroin and methadone clinics. These clinics helped resolve the nation’s severe HIV epidemic in the 1990s and have practically eliminated many of the harms ordinarily associated with heroin addiction ever since. Moreover, the clinics are extremely popular with the Swiss public, who view them as a highly effective way of eliminating the chaotic, dangerous black market for drugs. Dreifuss demonstrates not only how countries can reverse the harmful consequences of the drug war by embracing progressive drug policies, but also how politicians can persuade their constituents—including moderates and conservatives—to support such policies.
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Ruth Dreifuss Character Timeline in Chasing the Scream
The timeline below shows where the character Ruth Dreifuss appears in Chasing the Scream. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 15: Snowfall and Strengthening
...public places like a Zurich train station and a Bern park. But then, President Ruth Dreifuss changed everything. Hari meets her for an interview in her apartment.
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Growing up, Ruth Dreifuss was bullied for her Jewish identity and her political ambitions—at the time, Swiss women couldn’t...
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...selling, and finding money to pay for adulterated street heroin. Then, he joined one of Dreifuss’s heroin clinics. Now, he goes to the clinic for his fix and has the rest...
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Hari points out that Dreifuss managed to pass the world’s most progressive drug policies in one of the world’s most...
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In one clinic, a shy young patient handed Dreifuss a letter explaining that the clinic helped him get off the streets, learn self-respect, and...
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