Pubdate: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 Source: Aftonbladet (Sweden) Contact: Website: http://www.aftonbladet.se/ Translation: Olafur Brentmar and John Yates Note: Aftonbladet is the largest Swedish evening newspaper. This editorial is being reposted after translation improvements by John Yates. Thank you, John! STAND UP TO SOROS' DRUG LIBERALS The governments of the world must unite against drug liberalism. The UN special session on narcotics is promising. Politicians must never fall for the cynical capitualtion that the legalization movement stands for. Today the Swedish social minister Margot Wallstrom will address the UN about the importance of fighting drugs. Queen Silvia of Sweden is taking part in a panel discussion about children, young people and narcotics during the UN drugs session. It is excellent that Sweden can show such a broad unity on the narcotics issue. Yesterday a despicable advertisement by the Lindesmith Center aimed at the UN was published in the New York Times. Singinging the Praises of Legalization Over 600 persons signed a demand to stop the war on drugs, amongst them were well known Swedes such as High Court member Ingemar Rexed, author Peter Curman, criminologist Jerzy Sarnecki, the ex chief editor of Dagens Nyheter Olof Lagercrantz and a previous director of the Social department, Claes Ortendahl. The latter has informed Dagens Nyheter that he does not support the demand and cannot explain how his name came to be on it. He supports the Swedish restrictive approach. Thank God. It is remarkable that radical and intelligent people like Curman, Sarnecki and Lagercrantz are joining in the neoliberal chorus singing the praises of legalization. The demand is a part of a drug liberal campaign sponsored by the billionnaire George Soros. There are no simple solutions to the narcotics problem. Opinions differ, even in Sweden, as to whether narcotics are best fought with stiffer penalties or with social justice. But all of Swedens parliamentary parties agree that drugs should not be turned loose on society. The war on drugs must be fought on several fronts, with law enforcement and socially. The Swedish restrictive policy has been shown to give much better protection against the human and social hell of drug abuse than the loose rules in the Netherlands for example. In Sweden it is only small extreme right-wing groups that espouse drug liberalism. Victory for Humanism In the European Union however, strong drug liberal winds have been blowing for some time. Instead of actively fighting the breeding grounds of abuse - unemployment, segregation and economic injustice - some members of the EU parliament have chosen to advocate free narcotics. Submissivly they have fallen victim to the drug liberal lobbyists cynicism. Aftonbladet reported earlier this year how the drug liberals in the lobby group Cora were operating from an office in the middle of the EU parliament. The articles recieved wide attention. Now the EU parliament has determined that Cora shall imediatly be thrown out of the parliament building. This is a victory for humanism. Hopefully the member countries of the UN can now agree on a powerful plan of action against narcotics. The governments of the world must stand up to the campaign by the drug liberals. - --- Checked-by: Richard Lake