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DEBATE. When a United Social Committee in February decided it wanted to investigate drug policy to better prevent drug-related deaths, many of us applauded. Finally, politicians really opened their eyes to one of our biggest social problems in Sweden.
Sweden’s current drug policy has been anything but successful. According to the EU body EMCCDA, Sweden has the second highest drug-related mortality rate in Europe. In fact, for a long time, dependency investigators have been very critical of Swedish drug policy and, in particular, of criminalizing their own use. One of the world’s leading experts on addictive diseases, Markus Heilig, even claims that punishment has no effect on addiction. Despite the increase in repressive legislation, consumption has not decreased and mortality has increased.
Evaluating their policies sometimes requires reevaluating their position, difficult as it is to admit that thousands of people have died unnecessarily.
When the Social Committee demanded that the government evaluate the current drug policy, the Minister of Social Affairs came out quickly and welcomed an investigation, but said that the decriminalization was not relevant. But ruling out a potential action before the matter is evaluated is wrong and factual. He also gossips about mistrust of his own policy.
How many have died unnecessarily?
Anyone who is convinced that the policy they represent is the best possible does not exclude other measures in advance. Evaluating their policies sometimes requires reevaluating their position, difficult as it is to admit that thousands of people have died unnecessarily.
Therefore, a decriminalization is not a legalization, basically it means that it is not a crime to use drugs, but that production and sales are still illegal. Decriminalization is not an unproven suspension, Norway the following year decided to decriminalize drugs. The best example is the country with the lowest drug-related mortality in Europe. In Portugal, all drugs were decriminalized in 2001 and at the same time focused on extensive social interventions. The death toll decreased the avalanche, and Sweden has a 17-fold higher drug-related per capita mortality than Portugal.
Suddenly, the Public Health Authority is challenged
On May 8, the Public Health Authority also came out and called for an investigation into decriminalization. This time, too, Hallengren got up and said that he had no intention of changing, because he did not want to send “wrong signals.”
But Hallengren, stubbornly defending a drug policy that punishes the sick, what really signals? It is inconceivable that our Minister of Social Affairs requires us to follow the advice of the Public Health Authority when it comes to dealing with the Corona pandemic, but when it comes to a tragedy that harbors nearly 1,000 lives each year, she wants to completely ignore what that the leading investigation and the Public Health Authority have to say on the matter.
Sossig signal policy
Signaling policy does not save lives, but for the Social Democratic government it is obviously more important to try to control how people live than to ensure that they survive. After all, a dead user is a smaller user.
We cannot have a fact-resistant social minister who ignores the investigation, the parliamentary committees and the advice of his own expert authority. The Swedish people deserve a minister who takes their mission seriously.
It is time for the opposition to take a position: demand a thorough investigation of drug policy, including decriminalization. If Lena Hallengren continues her work behind old ideological shadows, it is time to be suspicious of her.
By Romina Pourmokhtari
President of the Liga Liberal Youth League
Linnea Bjärum
Vice President of the League of Liberal Youth
Victoria Viklund
Liberal Youth League judicial spokesperson
Hannes Sjöberg
President Liberal Youth Association Uppsala
