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Today the Platzspitz is one of Zurich's loveliest green spaces: a baroque garden laid out in 1780 on the point of land where the Sihl flows into the Limmat, shaded by old plane trees and centred on a music pavilion from the redesign for Switzerland's first national exhibition in 1883. Yet for almost six years it was known around the world by another name. After police leadership decided in the summer of 1986 to stop patrolling the park, it became the meeting point of the Swiss heroin scene. Around 2,000 people came here every day to buy drugs, at times up to 3,000 crowded the paths, and up to 200 slept in the park overnight. On the worst days paramedics had to resuscitate 25 people, and 21 people died here in 1991 alone. On 5 February 1992 police sealed the park with barred gates, but the scene simply moved downriver to the disused Letten station, where it lasted until February 1995. The hard lessons learned here helped shape Switzerland's pragmatic drug policy, including heroin prescribed under medical supervision, and since the summer of 2021 the park has once again been open around the clock.
Fatti principali
- 3000 people — At peak times up to 3,000 people crowded into the park; around 2,000 came every day just to buy drugs.
- 25 resuscitations — The number of people paramedics had to revive on the worst single days at Needle Park.
- 21 deaths — People who died in the park in 1991 alone, the year before police sealed it on 5 February 1992.