Swiss 
authorities began prescribing pharmaceutical heroin under medical supervision to long-term addicts who had failed other treatments. This moved beyond supervising users’ own drugs to the state itself supplying the substance of addiction.

Switzerland became resigned to the view that for a significant cohort recovery was improbable, so the pragmatic response was lifelong, regulated provision of the drug rather than sustained societal commitment to abstinence-oriented solutions and cultural norms that reject chronic dependency.

The Swiss authorities consider the program successful, in that the number of patients, after initially increasing, has remained relatively stable over two decades. Other European countries and Canada have since adopted the Swiss model, entrenching the practice of maintaining addictions rather than redirecting funds to pomoting abstinance.