Switzerland: Closed: Needle Park

In an effort to stem the alarming rise in AIDS cases among drug users, Zurich, along with a few other cities in Switzerland, began an experiment three years ago in drug tolerance. Addicts were permitted to sell, buy or use drugs in the city's downtown park, the Platzspitz. Needle Park, as it quickly became known, attracted up to 4,000 drug users a day. Health officials freely distributed clean needles along with counsel on social and medical services.

The program worked: by early this year, the incidence of new AIDS cases had dropped from 50% to 5%. (Overall, 20% of Zurich's addicts have tested HIV positive.) Trouble was, the Platzspitz also became a magnet for professional dealers, especially Lebanese, Yugoslav and Turkish gangs that overran small dealers in a violent price war.

Amid complaints of rising crime, Zurich officials last week shut down Needle Park for good. Some users clustered around the central train station, others headed off in search of methadone. With sales suddenly back underground, addicts complained that the price of heroin had doubled overnight to $214 a gram. Healthworkers said efforts to prevent AIDS would be much more difficult.