Word: referendum
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...enables doctors to provide heroin junkies with a strictly controlled dosage of heroin everyday. Shockingly enough, this program has succeeded in controlling the nation’s drug problem beyond the government’s wildest dreams. The Swiss pilot program—recently made permanent by a nationwide referendum on the issue—has saved the nation money, decreased crime rates, and halted the spread of infectious disease...
...first glance, this initiative, which initially passed in March 2008, may seem a little ridiculous. Indeed, it was accepted amidst much controversy; a group of conservative politicians forced a national referendum to try and defeat the program. On our side of the pond, the United States government has criticized the program for supposedly enabling drug abuse. The many successes of this fourteen year-old program, however, have demonstrated that the Swiss policy might actually be a good idea...
...Iraq. First spoken in hope, then inevitability, it is now uttered with a sense of urgency--and among some, alarm. Under the terms of the status-of-forces agreement ratified on Nov. 27 by the Iraqi parliament, U.S. troops must leave no later than the end of 2011; a referendum next summer could bring that deadline even closer. As the drawdown gathers speed, it will diminish the U.S.'s ability to influence Iraqi affairs. "Very soon, we will no longer have foreigners to blame for our problems--or to solve them," says Amar Fayyad, a political scientist at Baghdad University...
...later, Arab neighborhoods were being depleted as the Kurds sought to drive out Saddam's supporters. Turkomans and Arabs remained adamant that many of the Kurdish newcomers were not Kirkuk natives but had been sent to try to secure a majority before a new census and hence win a referendum, mandated by the new Iraqi constitution, on the city's future...
Today Kirkuk remains in limbo. No census has been taken, and several deadlines for the referendum have passed. There are still nearly 500 families in the soccer stadium. One resident told me that when some kids started a game there, a woman washing her dishes shooed them away, yelling, "Is this the place to be playing games...