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.