The car-sized wooden stalls, designed to be used by street-based sex workers and their clients, were created to offer a measure of safety to the women working the streets after dark and allay local concerns about the presence of sex workers in residential areas. While prostitution is legal in Switzerland as it is in Germany, critics of the laws have noted that there is little protection offered to the women. "They get into cars with men they don't know, and they don't know where they will be taken," said Ursula Kocher, who runs local outreach services for Swiss sex workers and works in Zurich’s welfare department. "They get driven out of the city, into a forest, away from anywhere." The sex boxes were designed in an effort to help reverse that. Equipped with access to an alarm, the area also includes security staff and an area for the workers to relax and engage with social workers. Posters reminding everyone to practise safer sex are prominently featured in the boxes. "Most women won't be doing this forever, and we do want them to be healthy [for the future]," Ms Kocher said. Zurich has a history of creative solutions to social concerns. In the 1980s it introduced a controversial scheme for needle drug users, including needle exchanges, decriminalisation of heroin use, and permitted injection rooms. (Possession of marijuana is not a criminal offence, but people may be fined for using it. Various cantons – the member states of federal Switzerland - including Geneva attempted to decriminalise the growing of a small number of plants in 2012, but the move was overturned by the Federal Court.) A study in the Lancetsuggested the effects of the drugs policy led to fewer new users of heroin and more access to treatment programmes, but it proved less popular with locals as users from other areas moved to Zurich. Spending on the £1.4 million 'sex boxes' was approved by a local referendum. According to Regula Rother who runs a drop-in centre, "Zurich is a destination for sex, but the people of Zurich don't want to see it. The government had to do something." The question now is whether the clients will turn up to use the boxes. The first night of their opening received so much press attention, it may have driven clients away, but reports suggest about 30 sex workers and clients still turned up to use the facilities. Thomas Meier, a spokesman for Zurich's social services, predicted it may take some time before the facility's popularity takes off because “prostitution is a business that requires a certain degree of confidentiality”. I would say 'let's watch this space', but I'm not sure that's the point please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
The helpful sign in the last photie says that reverse cowgirl position stops aids. I didny know that.
