Speaking at an international meeting in Italy recently, the Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Sweden, Mrs Margot Wallstrom, took a clear stance against all forms of liberalization and/or legalization of illicit drugs. Hassela Nordic Network here presents Wallstroms speech in full.
Mr Chairman, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to participate in this 2nd International Rainbow meeting here in San Patrignano. We all know that the drug problem is getting worse and worse. This is a trend which must be reversed and it is the fundamental task which the international community and national governments must tackle.
Allow me to give you a short description of the guiding principles for the drug policy in Sweden. Swedish drug policy is aimed at creating a drug-free society. This aim has been adopted by a unanimous Riksdag (Parliament) as the expression of an emphatic rejection of all non-medical use of drugs. There is in Sweden today a wide-ranging consensus of values on the focus of drug policy.
A drug-freee society is a high objective expressing societys attitude to narcotic drugs: we do not accept the integration of narcotic drugs in society, and our aim is a society in which drug abuse remains a socially unaccepted form of behaviour, a society in which drug abuse remains a marginal pehnomenon. A drug-free society is a vision expressing optimism and a positive view of humanity: the onslaught of drugs can be restrained, and drug abusers can be rehabilitated.
Swedish drug policy is distinguished by its breadth and depth. "Breadth" in that municipalities, county councils and virtually all national authorities are, within their various fields, actively involved in drug control measures. Drug prevention measures have high priority within the police, the customs service, the public prosecution service, the prison and probation service, social services, schools and various leisure activities. To this can be added all the voluntary organisations which, through their information activities and mobilisation of public opinion, help to prevent the spread of drugs in Sweden.
The "depth" of drug policy is expressed in the view on narcotic drugs which permeates society. Cutting across all boundaries of party politics and opinion, there is agreement on the unacceptability of non-medical drug use. One of the characteristics of Swedish drug policy is that it makes no distinction between measures to limit the supply of drugs and measures to curb demand. Measures of different kinds reinforce and supplement one another, together expressing the determination of society to combat drugs. The basic idea can be described as close interaction and balance between preventive measures, control policy and treatment of drug abusers.
Public opinion, the press, non-governmental organizations and those who are involved professionally support the main principles of Swedish narcotics policy, and thus agree on the importance of the implementation of both control measures and demand reduction activities. And there are no serious advocates, either at the individual or the organisational level, of the idea that narcotics should be legalized or that possession of drugs should be decriminalized. This also applies to cannabis.
I believe that one very important precondition of a successful drug policy is for people of all ages to reject the non-medical use of drugs. Comprehensive measures of information and opinion creation must be taken in order to sustain and reinforce the negative attitudes existing in Sweden where drugs are concerned.
Information today is concerned with supplying basic facts and with conditioning the attitudes of children and young adults to drugs. The method for conveying information has shifted over the years from a transfer of facts and values to the encouragement of personal standpoints and activity. Young persons are a key group here. Schools, the police, municipal leisure activities and social services cooperate on preventive measures addressed to juveniles. Many local authorities have set up special teams of social workers for outreach work with young persons in the risk zone of drug abuse.
In Sweden a large number of voluntary organisations play a vital part in preventive measures. The sports movement, for example, includes a quarter of the population and more than half of the countrys youngsters. All kinds of organisations, ranging from youth organisations, educational associations and trade unions to specific drug policy organisations are actively concerned with information and public opinion about drugs. Many of these organisations also have supportive activities and arrange drug-free discos and activities for young persons in the drug abuse danger zone.
The most essential drug prevention work is carried out at the local level. The Government has taken several initiatives in support of local government work. The Swedish National Institute of Public Health, which is responsible for drugs prevention initiatives in Sweden, has invited all the municipalities in the country to take part in the 'Municipalities Against Drugs' project. There was considerable interest in the project throughout the country. The overall aim of the project is to stimulate local work and to develop community organization models for drugs prevention work. The municipalities included in the project have formed a close network with frequent contacts for continuous exchange of experiences and ideas.
Concerning treatment and rehabilitation, the Social Services Act (1982) declares that social work, like care and treatment, must be founded on respect for the self-determination and integrity of the individual. The measures taken must be conducted in consultation with the client. The Social Services Act is based, principally, on voluntary participation. Therapeutic work derives its motive power from the individual drug abusers personal motivation for change, and the social worker and drug abuser decide between them what kinds of support and care are needed. In acute phases of abuse, however, the social worker can take over responsibility for assessing the individuals needs. Drug abuser care is aimed at achieving freedom from drugs. There are special detoxification and rehabilitation departments and psychiatric care, and special residential treatment centres for drug abusers with psychiatric disorders. In addition to public care, there are also private and foundation-operated institutions. All care except that provided by medical services, howver, is funded by the municipal social services.
For outreach and therapeutic work with young persons living under high risk circumstances, many municipalities have set up special youth groups, i.e. teams of social workers which actively contact young persons in various environments where young people tend to meet. The groups provide support to families and individual youngsters, they often play a dynamic role and they serve as intermediaries between youngsters and other authorities. For example, the youth groups assist young persons in their dealings with the Employment Service.
Similarly, many municipalities have set up specialized outpatient centres for drug abusers. Outreach activities, guidance, motivation work, crisis therapy and psychotherapy are the main tasks of these teams. An important part of their work involves linking together various social and medical inputs through various phases of the rehabilitation process, which for example can mean institutional therapy or treatment in private families (family care). Such treatment facilities are financed by the municipal social services.
Correction treatment in institutions is aimed, from the very outset, at preparing the prisoner for life outside the prison walls, insofar as this can be done without neglecting societys need for protection. To promote the social adjustment of prisoners, for example, drug abusers desiring treatment for their abuse can be placed in drug-free or motivation wings, i.e. departments concerned with motivating drug abusers for treatment.
Another method or promoting the prisoners readjustment to society is by exercising the faculty, conferred by the 'Act on Correctional Treatment in Institutions', of allowing a prisoner to serve part of his sentence outside the prison, e.g. in a care institution for drug abusers. This treatment is combined with an indirect form of coercion, in that a prisoner curtailing his treatment will be returned to prison.
Another alternative to prison is probation combined with therapeutic measures. Courts can make contract care orders in cases where a criminal offence was significantly due to drug abuse, if the convicted person is willing to undergo treatment in accordance with a special plan drawn up by the court. As I said before, we are convinced of the importance of a balanced approach between the demand and supply reduction activities. As for example, one main objective of the law enfocement agencies is to combat all kinds of open drug scenes in our cities. That will make it more difficult to sell drugs but at the same time it will protect our youngsters against dealers and it will make it more difficult for curious youngsters to find drugs.
The supply of drugs is viewed as the central crime in the 'Drug Offences Act', which is based on international conventions of which Sweden is a signatory. The Act has been amended several times since it was first passed in 1968.
In 1983, the Riksdag (Parliament) introduced heavier penalties for personal use of drugs, with the effect that personal consumption is now also punishable by imprisonment, whereas previously it could only be punished through the imposition of fines.
Under the 'Drug Offences Act' as it now stands, the supply, production, acquisition [with a view to supply], procurement, processing, transport, storage, possession and consumption of drugs are punishable offences. So too is the promotion of drug trafficking. The 'Smuggling of Goods Act', which among other things regulates all imports and exports of merchandise, supplements the 'Drug Offences Act'.
The Customs Supervision Section of the Board of Customs is responsible for central drug control work within the customs service. Three-quarters of its work is concerned with drug smuggling. About 60 percent of the total criminal investigation resources of the customs services are devoted to drug control. In addition there are special control groups working with what is termed mobile supervision. Certain customs authorities have set up special task forces.
A special unit at the National Police Board is working with the detection and investigation of serious drug offences or of drug offences with international connections. Within the local police districts, measures to fight drug offences are part of traditional policing. Many police authorities have also set up special disruption or street level teams specializing in the prevention of street trafficking.
The police give operational priority to the upper reaches of drug crime AND the pusher on the street. This strategy is based on the theory that demand for drugs has a critical bearing on the extent of illegal distribution and that an effective control policy, accordingly, requires that police also intervene against drug abuse environments and against street-level trading. Measures at street level also have an inportant effect on public opinion, indicating as they do societys rejection of drug abuse and drug trafficking.
In the comprehensive reorganization of police authorities, the local police activities play a very important role. The police are organized in small local units working on a problem oriented and preventive basis. Local police activities should try to tackle the fundamental problems instead of merely reacting to the symptoms caused by the problems.
By means of close cooperation, mainly with schools, the police in a district succeeded in mapping out and prosecuting extensive drug trafficking, supplying young people primarily with hashish.
So what can we say about the drug situation in Sweden? Are we successful?
A survey of the extent of drug abuse in Sweden was made in 1992. The number of heavy drug users was estimated at between 14,000 and 20,000. In a similar survey in 1979, the number of drug users was estimated at between 10,000 and 14,000. A heavy drug user was defined as a person who injects drugs or uses drugs every, or virtually every, day. This means that we count daily use of cannabis as heavy use of drugs. Amphetamine is the dominating drug today.
This was a case-finding survey. That is, an attempt was made to find and count the drug users known to various authorities. The size of the dark figure has been gauged by means of capture-recapture estimates.
For various reasons - direct comparisons between the 1979 survey and the present one are difficult to make. The former survey was a total study, whereas the later one is a sample survey. However, all the indications point to a certain rise in the number of drug abusers in Sweden during the past 14 years.
The hopeful sign, though, is that the percentage of young drug users has declined very considerably indeed since 1979. At the time, 37 percent of drug users were under the age of 25, whereas in the present survey the figure is 10 percent.
The change in the age structure and the fact that drug use has often been going on for many years (almost 50 percent have been using drugs for ten years or more) suggest that most new recruitment for heavy drug use occurred at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. New recruitment appears to have decreased since then.
The proportion of students (16 years old) having ever tried any narcotic substance decreased during the period 1971 to the late 1980s. The lowest rate of lifetime prevalence was observed in 1989 when the proportion was 3 percent. Since then there has been a steady, slight increase and the lifetime prevalence rate in 1995 was about 6 percent. What is worrying is that we at the same time can see a slight change in the attitudes towards narcotic drugs among young people.
I will not go into detail here about all the survey findings, but I am disposed to see the decline in the recruitment of new youngsters as proof that the considerable preventive measures taken in Sweden have produced results. Preventive measures, therefore, are also the most effective means of combatting drug abuse. We are now facing a new generation so we have to continue the hard work to prevent drug abuse among our youngsters.
I believe that a society with as little use and abuse of psychoactive substances as possible is consistent with improved social development and welfare and increased quality of life of the inhabitants.
So what can we do in the future?
For me it is very clear that it is very important to maintain a balanced approach with measures to combat BOTH supply AND demand for illicit drugs to reduce the total number of narcotics-related problems.
We need a comprehensive policy where law enforcement measures must go hand in hand with prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. All these components are equally important. In combination, they are far more effective than the sum of all the various individual measures.
In Sweden, we have reached the conclusion that a successful demand reduction strategy must be part of a broader social welfare policy. The key factors are to ensure good conditions for all children and young people, and to build up a protective mechanism which gives warning when a young person risks becoming involved in drug abuse.
An important aspect of the preventive work of the police authorities is to reduce the demand for narcotics. It is therefore essential that he police take measures to combat drugs crime at all levels. International and national cooperation involving exchange of information and experiences and the development of methods, are of considerable importance.
It is also clear that both professionals and non-professionals, friends, parents, brothers and sisters, voluntary organisations, employers and employees are needed in the overall fight against drugs.
It is also a question of achieving a new climate for cooperation so that those who are involved in the fight against drug abuse can work together, despite their traditional professional barriers.
We must also fight the strategy of liberalization, and ultimately, of legalization, as these would make it impossible to solve the narcotics problem. Young people in our countries must get a clear, uniform message which is negative to drugs.
Classifying different narcotic substances by the degree of harm they are supposed to do, does not offer any solution either. We know today that there are no harmless drugs.
At last, but not least, we must give higher priority to narcotics questions on national and international agendas, such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe and within the European Union.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
HASSELA NORDIC NETWORK - Press release October 27, 1996