BODSTROM REVERSES ON DRUGS

There is a hard battle being fought in the European narcotics debate
between the liberal and restrictive positions. Sweden has represented the
strongest support for a restrictive policy. Because of this, Justice
Minister Thomas Bodstroms position on drug issues is important. Already on
his first working day he was forced to back away from a two year old debate
article.

Minister of Justice Thomas Bodstrom no longer stands by his earlier
criticism of the governments narcotics policy. Two years ago he called the
criminalisation of drugs meaningless and opportunistic. Now he fully
supports it.

Thomas Bodstrom started his first day on the job by going into reverse. At
the weekend the newspaper Expressen published excerpts from his two year
old debate article in Liberal Debatt. There he describes the
criminalisation of drug consumption introduced at the beginning of the
1990's as "A demonstration of political opportunism". He writes critically
of how his predecessor Laila Freivalds and the Moderats ex-Minister of
Justice Gun Hellsvik conducted "A sort of duel over who stood for the most
restrictive criminal policy".

On Monday morning it was time to inherit Freivalds chair along with her
advisors and policy. And by then all criticism of an excessivly hard Social
Democrat narcotics policy had vanished.

"What I was adressing in the Liberal Debatt article is the oversimplifying
and caricaturising that primarily the Moderates stand for with their belief
that punishment is all that is neccessary to fight crime. And that is
abolutely not the case," says Thomas Bodstrom to Dagens Nyheter when we
meet him on Monday morning.

He now stands fully behind the criminalisation of drug use.

"Yes, it is important. But we should not rest with that. It is rather
meaningless to only have criminalisation. The authorities must also work
preventativly and follow up punishment with care. Punishment alone means
drug abusers are excluded from society," he says.

He distances himself from the criticism of Laila Freivalds when Dagens
Nyheter meets him in his room together with those who are to be his nearest
co-workers in the Ministry. Thomas Bodstrom looks grimly resolute when he
describes his old debate article as "Provocativly written as an advocate".

"With a certain self criticism I can say that many of the things I was
seeking are here at the ministry. An investigation at the National Council
for Crime Prevention regarding the effects of the criminalization of
illegal drug consumption is in progress. And it is with pleasure I can tell
of how much we spend on preventative measures. It is really uplifting. This
is where dividing line between social democrats and moderates goes. We see
the whole picture while they speak only of punishment," says the new social
Social Democrat Minister of Justice.

What does Prime Minister Goran Persson feel about his new minister of
justice having earlier criticised the governments drug policy?

"I don't read Liberal Debatt," said Goran Persson when Dagens Nyheter asked
for a comment on Monday morning.