One of the most frequent broadsides leveled at the Widnes Clinic was that John Marks’ startling claims were never verified by independent investigators. In fact, a serious study was undertaken 1990 to measure the Widnes approach against the results of methadone treatment, and for a minute it looked like there might be a face-to-face scientific shoot-out between the British and the American systems. The one-year survey was already underway when word suddenly came from the regional health authority demanding immediate return "within 24 hours" of the entire research grant. No explanation was given.^[18] And though Marks repeatedly invited outsiders to confirm or refute his numbers, there were no takers until 1995.  Then the government finally set in motion a major review of all drug treatment regimes in the U.K.  It was set to start on April 1, 1995—the day the Widnes Clinic closed down—once again, neatly avoiding any unfortunate comparisons.

But not everybody in Europe was so dazzled by the American experience. Swiss health authorities had been watching the developments in England for some time, and they decided the concept of prescribing drugs to serious addicts was too intriguing to be tossed in the dustbin. So with famous Swiss precision, they engineered a tightly controlled experiment with the intention of putting a measuring stick up against this issue once and for all.

Most Americans are under the mistaken impression that Switzerland tried drug legalization back in the 1980s and that it ended in disaster. The “Needle Park” scene at the Platzspitz in Zurich was often cited by U.S. officials as proof of “the failure of legalization programs tried in other parts of the world such as Zurich.”^[19]  In fact, there was never a legalization experiment in Zurich.  The debacle in Platzspitz was nothing more than an unsuccessful attempt at street cleaning. The burghers tried to tidy up the city center by designating a free trade zone for serious