Pubdate: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 Source: Aftonbladet (Sweden) Contact: http://www.aftonbladet.se/ Author: Åsa Petersen Note: Translated into English by newshawk. BODSTRÖM IS NEEDED IN THE DEBATE ON DRUGS The minister of justice is a drug liberal! Thats how the past weekends indignant judgements about Thomas Bodström read. The background is an article he wrote in Liberal Debatt No. 7/98. There Bodström criticized the Swedish drug policy. Since 1988 possession of illegal drugs is criminal and since 1993 one can be sentenced to prison for possession. (Note, its consumption -- not possession). "No drug addict will stop abusing heroin because he risks being sentenced to prison for it", Bodström wrote. He meant that the criminalization of possession has not helped heavy drug abusers, but that it has meant that they have been excluded from society. That stand is not drug liberal. It is humanistic. The Swedish criminalization against possession of narcotics was introduced with the best intentions. Now society could give a clear signal that drugs are bad. And it would be easier to both take drug users into care and their pushers into custody. The dealers often claimed that their drugs were not for sale, but were intended for personal use. But no studies, neither Swedish or international, point to that the criminalization against personal use has led to a decrease in drug use. On the other hand, it has changed the way we look at the drug addict. The law says that she foremost is a criminal, not a victim. The responsibility for the addiction is put on the addict and not on the reasons behind it. In this way, society can escape the responsibility for its addicted citizens. This change in attitude is noticed none the less in Stockholm. Brochures will bar the way against beggars. Homeless are seen as a threat against public order, not as victims of a harder society. Symptomatic is also that the treatment has become constantly worse since personal use was criminalized. Instead of giving addicts support, they are thrown into jail. Today a drug user can count on ending up in prison if he gets caught, but not on receiving the treatment he needs. Drug treatment costs a lot of money and therefore threatens the budget of the already pressured social welfare offices. Many drug addicts can tell about how they are put in detox after detox, but never receive any rehabilitation worth the name. Society's absence of support opens the door to continued addiction. To see this problem is not drug romance. It is, rather, widening the view on the drug policy. Bodström does not only see the individual drug user but also societys responsibility for her situation. His touch breathes solidarity, far from the philosophy of "mind your own buisness" that drug liberals proclaim. Bodström is needed in the Swedish debate on drugs. He should begin his commission as minister of justice with a serious investigation of the consequenses of the Swedish drug policy that criminalizes the victim. Drugs are one of the largest threats against our society. It can only be fought if it is seen in its whole complexity. - --- MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst