The Swedish Drug Policy – a Restrictive and Successful Model?

Abstract

Officially, Swedish drug policy is proclaimed to be successful. The success, it is claimed, depends on the implementation of a “restrictive” – in comparison to the 1960s and 1970s – drug policy in Sweden today.

The question addressed in the article is whether the strict drug policy has led to less harm from narcotics than earlier. The analysis of the development of drug use is based upon case-finding studies, time series on sentenced persons, drug use among young people, and deaths as a result of drug use, among other things.

According to available data, the success of the Swedish drug policy cannot be established by counting the number of drug abusers; the number increased during the 1980s. When it comes to the number of new drug users, a decrease was especially noticeable during the less strict 1970s. Whether there is a decrease also during the 1980s is a matter of interpretation, since different data sets give partly different answers.

The uncertain and limited decrease in the costs of drug consumption since the beginning of the 1980s must be seen in relation to the clearly increased costs for the control of drugs. Such costs are connected to the disregard for law, increased use of limited law enforcement resources, increased use of compulsory treatment, more and longer prison sentences, and, possibly, increased mortality among drug abusers. The repressive features have become clearer. The conclusion must therefore be that the official description of Swedish drug policy as a restrictive and successful model hardly is supported by neither the terminology nor data.