Sweden's tough drug laws leave addicts behind

Published: 10 Apr 2014 09:04 GMT+02:00 / Updated: 10 Apr 2014 09:04 GMT+02:00

Even though's Sweden has one of Europe's lowest consumption rates of recreational drugs, its zero
tolerance policy may be pushing up the number of drug-related deaths.
Cocaine, ecstasy and even cannabis are rarely seen in streets and clubs in line with Sweden's official "zero
tolerance" approach. The ambitious target is clear.
"The overarching goal: a society free from illegal drugs," it states.
Sweden criminalized illicit drug use in 1988, thanks in large part to a two-decade campaign by a group called
the Swedish National Association for a Drug-free Society (RNS). It followed a two-year attempt to introduce a
more tolerant approach that was considered a failure by authorities.
"The most important link in the chain when it comes to the drug problem is the use of drugs, the demand that
comes from the individual user," said RNS secretary general Per Johansson.
"If you don't focus on the demand you will never be effective combatting the supply of drugs."
Sweden also puts strong emphasis on prevention, with extensive drug awareness programmes in schools and
even preschools. The country now has some of the continent's lowest rates of drug consumption among students
aged 15 and 16.
According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), only nine percent of
the Swedish school population had tried cannabis, compared to 39 percent in France, 42 percent in the Czech
Republic and around 25 percent in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands.
'Something not Swedish'
A survey by the Swedish Drug Users Union in 2008 showed that a majority of the population supports the strict
policy. Every other Swede said that possession or cultivation of cannabis for personal use should be punished
with prison, and six in 10 believed that a "total war" on cannabis -- which the survey defined as arresting and
jailing all dealers and users -- was the best tactic.
"Drugs have always been seen as something not Swedish, like something foreign," said Brje Olsson, a
sociology professor at Stockholm University.
"They are not part of the Swedish morals. People think 'this has nothing to do with us'."
The latest EMCDDA data shows that the number of Swedish adults between 15 and 64 who had consumed
cocaine during the last year was almost five times smaller than the biggest consumer, Spain.
For ecstasy, consumption figures in Britain and the Netherlands were 14 times higher than in Sweden.
Police play a key role in enforcement. Anyone even suspected of being "high" can be detained and given a
compulsory urine test. If positive, they are slapped with a criminal charge and must stand trial.

Official state data shows that illicit drug consumption accounts for about half of all offences recorded in
Sweden.
The mood contrasts sharply with more "open" drug scenes found in clubs in Spain and Germany, and catches
some off guard. One ex-addict and member of Cocaine Anonymous Sweden, who asked not to be named, said
he became "totally paranoid" upon return to Sweden.
"You kept thinking all the time, 'Who are the undercover police here?'" he said.
Though lauding the benefits of no tolerance, certain experts argue there is a downside.
"We put a lot of effort in preventing people from starting to use drugs but we have little focus on the people
who have an abuse problem," said Bjrn Johnsson, a drug policy researcher at Malm University.
He linked Sweden's reluctancy to introduce harm reduction programmes, focused on rehabilitation rather than
criminalisation, with the growing drug-related deaths.
Soaring drug-related deaths
In 2011, Sweden had almost twice the European average of drug-related deaths, at 35.5 per million people,
according to the EMCDDA. And the number has almost quadrupled since the 1990s, from 70 cases in 1995 to
272 in 2010.
In the same period, when most European countries implemented harm reduction measures -- like needle
exchanges to prevent the spread of HIV -- drug-related deaths decreased in Spain (698 to 393), Germany (1565
to 1237) and Italy (1195 to 374).
Ted Goldberg, a retired social work professor at Stockholm University, also sees criminalization of
consumption as a factor in overdose deaths.
"If you're shooting up with somebody and they have an overdose, a normal person would call the authorities
immediately," he said.
But in Sweden, "if they call medical authorities, drug addicts are afraid that the police will come and they don't
want that."
Drug user support groups, meanwhile, complain that requirements for methadone treatment programmes are too
strict while needle exchange programmes have been slow in coming.
The southern cities of Lund and Malm were the first, acting on their own, to start needle exchanges in the
1980s, but it was not until 2006 that parliament passed a law allowing all regions to do the same.
Even today, only three of Sweden's 21 counties have joined the programme, including the influential Stockholm
region -- home of the capital and the government -- which only started in April last year.
Though a fierce advocate of the no tolerance policy, even RNS chief Johansson readily concedes that Sweden
has sidelined its hard core addicts.
"We don't take care of the old users, the heavy users, people who are deep in the problem," he told AFP. "We
don't take care of them properly."
AFP (news@thelocal.se)

Source: http://www.thelocal.se/20140410/swedens-strict-anti-drug-laws

Europe's drug antiwar

Europe has a drug problem, and knows it. But the Europeans' approach to it is quite different from the
American "war on drugs." I spend 120 days a year in Europe as a travel writer, so I decided to see for myself
how it's working. I talked with locals, researched European drug policies and even visited a smoky marijuana
"coffee shop" in Amsterdam. I got a close look at the alternative to a war on drugs.
Europeans are well aware of the U.S. track record against illegal drug use. Since President Nixon first declared
the war on drugs in 1971, our country has locked up millions of its citizens and spent hundreds of billions of
dollars (many claim that if incarceration costs are figured in, a trillion dollars) waging this "war." Despite these
efforts, U.S. government figures show the overall rate of illicit drug use has remained about the same.
By contrast, according to the 2007 U.N. World Drug Report, the percentage of Europeans who use illicit drugs
is about half that of Americans. (Europe also has fewer than half as many deaths from overdoses.) How have
they managed that -- in Europe, no less, which shocks some American sensibilities with its underage drinking,
marijuana tolerance and heroin-friendly "needle parks"?
Recently, in Zurich, Switzerland, I walked into a public toilet that had only blue lights. Why? So junkies can't
find their veins. A short walk away, I saw a heroin maintenance clinic that gives junkies counseling, clean
needles and a safe alternative to shooting up in the streets. Need a syringe? Cigarette machines have been
retooled to sell clean, government-subsidized syringes.
While each European nation has its own drug laws and policies, they seem to share a pragmatic approach. They
treat drug abuse not as a crime but as an illness. And they measure the effectiveness of their drug policy not in
arrests but in harm reduction.
Generally, Europeans employ a three-pronged strategy of police, educators and doctors. Police zero in on
dealers -- not users -- to limit the supply of drugs. Users often get off with a warning and are directed to get
treatment. Anti-drug education programs warn people (especially young people) of the dangers of drugs, but
they get beyond the "zero tolerance" and "three strikes" rhetoric that may sound good to voters but rings hollow
with addicts and at-risk teens. And finally, the medical community steps in to battle health problems associated
with drug use (especially HIV and hepatitis C) and help addicts get back their lives.
Contrast this approach with the American war on drugs. As during Prohibition in the 1930s, the U.S. spends its
resources on police and prisons to lock up dealers and users alike. American drug education (such as the nowdiscredited DARE program) seemed like propaganda, and therefore its messengers lost credibility.
Perhaps the biggest difference between European and American drug policy is how each deals with marijuana.
When I visited the Amsterdam coffee shop that openly sells pot, I sat and observed: People were chatting; a
female customer perused a fanciful array of "loaner" bongs. An older couple (who apparently didn't enjoy the
edgy ambience) parked their bikes and dropped in for a baggie to go. An underage customer was shooed away.

A policeman stepped inside, but only to post a warning about the latest danger from chemical drugs on the
streets. In the Netherlands, it's cheaper to get high than drunk, and drug-related crimes are rare.
After 10 years of allowed recreational marijuana use, Dutch anti-drug abuse professionals agree that there has
been no significant increase in pot smoking among young people and that overall cannabis use has increased
only slightly. Meanwhile, in the U.S., it's easier for a 15-year-old to buy marijuana than tobacco or alcohol -because no one gets carded when buying something on the street.
The Netherlands' policies are the most liberal, but across Europe no one is locked away for discreetly smoking a
joint. The priority is on reducing abuse of such hard drugs as heroin and cocaine. The only reference to
marijuana I found among the pages of the European Union's drug policy was a reference to counseling for
"problem cannabis use."
Meanwhile, according to FBI statistics, in recent years about 40% of the roughly 80,000 annual drug arrests
were for marijuana -- the majority (80%) for possession.
In short, Europe is making sure that the cure isn't more costly than the problem. While the U.S. spends tax
dollars on police, courts and prisons, Europe spends its taxes on doctors, counselors and clinics. EU
policymakers estimate that they save 15 euros in police and health costs for each euro invested in drug
education and counseling.
European leaders understand that a society has a choice: tolerate alternative lifestyles or build more prisons.
They've made their choice. We're still building more prisons.

Source: http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/12/news/OE-STEVES12

Dutch Marijuana Laws Rollback Provides Lessons For

MAASTRICHT, Netherlands (AP) A young man at a bus stop hisses at a passer-by: "What you looking for ...
marijuana?" It's a scene of street peddling that the Netherlands hoped to stamp out in the 1970s when it launched a
policy of tolerating "coffee shops" where people could buy and smoke pot freely.
But Maastricht's street dealers are back, local residents complain. And the reason is a crackdown on coffee-shops
triggered by another problem: Pot tourists who crossed the border to visit the cafes and made a nuisance of
themselves by snarling traffic, dumping litter and even urinating in the streets.
This exchange of one drug problem for another has become a headache for Maastricht and may give reason for
pause in the U.S. states of Washington and Colorado that recently allowed the sale of marijuana for the first time.
The Netherlands, the world pioneer in pot liberalization, has recently taken a harder line toward marijuana, with
mixed results seen particularly in border towns such as Maastricht.
The central government clampdown has involved banning people who live outside the Netherlands from coffee
shops, and shuttering shops that are deemed to be too close to schools. There was even a short-lived policy that said
smokers had to apply for a "Weed Pass" to get into a coffee shop. The new rules were rolled out across the country
between the middle of 2012 and the beginning of last year.
But while the central government made the rules, it's up to local municipalities to enforce them and most are
embracing only part of the policy.
Amsterdam with some 200 licensed coffee shops, one-third of the nationwide total still lets foreigners visit
them, although it is closing coffee shops that are near schools.
One city that has embraced the crackdown whole-heartedly is Maastricht, in the southern province of Limburg close
to the Dutch borders with Belgium and Germany.
Its mayor, Onno Hoes, says he enforced the legislation to halt a daily influx of thousands of foreigners who crossed
the borders to stock up on pot at its 14 coffee shops. That effort to end so-called "drug tourism" has been successful,
local residents say, but the flip side has been a rise in street dealers like the man who recently tried to sell pot to an
AP reporter in Maastricht.

Carol Berghmans lives close to the River Maas, whose muddy waters bisect the city, and whose banks are
frequented by dealers he sees as he walks his dog each day.
He says there were certainly problems before the crackdown as cars filled with pot tourists poured into the cobbled
streets of central Maastricht but he described the atmosphere as "gezellig," a Dutch word that loosely translates as
cozy or convivial.
Since coffee shops were banned from selling to non-residents, the numbers of foreigners has dried up. But the
atmosphere in town has turned darker as street dealers now aggressively badger any potential clients and fight
among themselves, Berghmans says.
"Now the drug runners are trying to sell on the street to anyone," he says. "They are bothering everybody."
Maastricht city spokesman Gertjan Bos said the problem of street dealing is not new, but concedes it has become
more visible since the city's crackdown reduced the number of drug tourists.
"We have a feeling our approach is working," Bos said, "but we do still have to work on the street dealers."
Easy Going coffee shop, in a street linking Maastricht's historic market square with the Maas, has been shut for
months as its owner, Marc Josemans, refuses to adhere to the rule about selling only to Dutch residents.
"I won't discriminate," he explains. He is fighting a legal battle against the new rules and expects the Dutch Supreme
Court to issue a ruling soon on whether turning away non-Dutch residents is constitutional.
Experts also question the Dutch policy change.
August de Loor has for years run a bureau in Amsterdam that gives drug advice aimed at minimizing health risks for
users as well as testing party drugs such as ecstasy for purity.
He says coffee shops once played an important role not only in keeping cannabis users away from hard drugs like
heroin, but also educating them about safely using pot and providing a meeting place for people who would rather
smoke a joint than drink a beer.
"That special element of the Dutch model makes coffee shops unique in the world," he said, "and that is gradually
fading away."
One part of the Dutch drug experience that has remained illegal is commercial cultivation of weed. Meaning that
while coffee shops are tolerated and taxed the people who supply them are not.
In January, a group of 35 municipalities, including both Amsterdam and Maastricht, called on the central
government to allow regulated growing, saying it would take the harvest out of the hands of organized crime.
The Dutch Justice Minister, Ivo Opstelten, was blunt in his rejection: "I'm not doing it," he said. "The mayors have
to live with it."
Prof. Dirk Korf, a criminologist at the University of Amsterdam, says the Dutch tolerance policy has worked well.
"The clear success is that there is regulated supply to users without having a strong effect on the prevalence on use
itself," he said. "One could be afraid that more people would use cannabis; that has not been the case."

Jo Smeets, a former coffee shop worker in Maastricht, complains his neighborhood has been overrun by dealers
since the city's crackdown. The dealers, he says, sell drugs on the streets to people who previously would have
bought in tightly controlled coffee shops: "Now they can buy more and they can buy hard drugs from the same
dealers."
Amsterdam's coffee shops, by contrast, continue to welcome foreigners with open arms.
The main difference between the two cities is the type of tourist they attract. In Maastricht, foreigners drive over the
border, visit a coffee shop and drive back on the same day. In Amsterdam, tourists mostly arrive by plane or train,
stay in a hotel and visit museums and restaurants as well as dropping in on a coffee shop plowing far more
cash into the city.
On a recent Friday afternoon in the Dutch Flowers coffee shop on Amsterdam's historic Singel canal, German and
American voices mingled with English and Dutch in a hazy cloud of pot smoke.
Shawn Stabley, a 49-year-old, musician and IT director from York, Pennsylvania, is typical of the type of tourist
Amsterdam coffee shops attract.
He and his partner strolled into Dutch Flowers for a smoke after visiting another Amsterdam icon, the Anne Frank
House museum, a short walk away on another of the city's canals. The cafe has a few tables, a bar with a set of
electronic scales for weighing out drugs and a menu filled with names of marijuana and hashish like Neville's Haze
and Parvati Creme.
The couple has been visiting the city for 20 years to celebrate Thanksgiving, Stabley says. He says they don't plan to
stop the tradition now, even if he can buy pot closer to home in Denver or Seattle.
"Every window is picturesque," Stabley said, "and coming here to places that serve hash and marijuana just
enhances that and prolongs it."

Taken from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/07/dutch-marijuana-laws-us-states_n_4918305.html