John Yates, a British citizen living in Finland, has written this article about the situation in the neighbouring country of Sweden. First published by UKCIA, it has since been reproduced at the DrugText site in Amsterdam and is also going to be published in the International Journal of Drug Policy. Sweden has the harshest drug laws in Europe and they are determined that any future European drug laws should be based on the 'Swedish Model' rather than the 'Dutch Model'.	Drugs Policy in Sweden Sweden has been regarded as a modern, liberal and tolerant country for the greater part of this century. The ‘Swedish Model’ welfare state set glowing example for the Social Democratic parties of Europe to emulate. But Recent press revelations show there is another, sinister, side to the Swedish Model. For 40 years, from 1935 to 1976, during the time of Social Democrat rule while the welfare state was being built, Sweden carried out Nazi style "racial Hygiene" policies. The leading Swedish newspaper ‘Dagens Nyheter’ reported in a series of articles, 20-21.8.97 that at least 60.000 people, mostly young women and girls, were forcibly sterilised to protect the Nordic Aryan stock from ‘inferior races’ and ‘moral degenerates’. Central to the Swedish welfare state is the concept of the ‘Folkhemmet’ (National Homeland) in which blonde, blue eyed, hard working lutherans live in harmony and security. Throughout the periods immediately before and after the Second World War Sweden was in the grip of a racial mass hysteria. There was to be no place in the National Homeland for inferior races, who would pollute the Swedish stock or for degenerates and non-conformists who would upset the harmony. Dark hordes of sub humans were seen as a threat to the Nordic ideal. To protect themselves from this threat, the Swedish parliament in 1935, without protest or opposition and with the blessing of the State church, passed laws calling for the sterilisation of inferior racial types, vagabonds, gypsies and the socially undesirable. One Social Democrat, Alfred Petrel, suggested the possibility of exterminating handicapped children until it was realised that these undesirables had parents who loved them and might object. Sterilisation would be sufficient. Most ‘unacceptable’ behaviour was considered to be genetically determined, including criminality, immorality and social deviation. Sterilisation was the instrument that would eliminate these perversions from the National Homeland. According to Health Ministry documents, the diagnosis ‘psychopath’ ‘unstable’ or ‘weak minded’ were sufficient grounds for sterilisation. Perhaps even more chilling, if that is possible, ‘showing opposition to authority’ was considered evidence of weakmindedness and could lead directly to the operating table. The policy continued until 1976 and during this time the health service apparatus, doctors, nurses and officials, complied without question or complaint. Sweden, in common with most western countries, went through a period of liberalisation in the sixties. Attitudes changed. Dark hordes of inferior races were no longer perceived as a threat, at least by the government. A more open and free life style with liberal attitudes was adopted, especially by young people. Pop music and drugs were central components of a new youth culture. This was viewed with loathing and hatred by the establishment. Traditional Swedish morality was under attack. The National Homeland was threatened again. K.A Westerberg, founder of The Hassela Collective, a militant prohibitionist organisation, wrote in ‘Folket i Bild’ no.14. 1978: "The values of the working class, diligence and order, solidarity and conscientiousness, a sense of honour and the ability to behave like civilised human beings are no longer fashionable" Liberal ideas and the free lifestyle they encouraged were identified as the new enemy. Establishment and working class institutions were mobilised and drugs, symbolic of the new degeneracy, were to be the focus of the attack. Drugs were a threat to Nordic values and zero tolerance would be the nstrument that would cleanse the National Homeland from them and the degenerates who use them. The War on Drugs would be the means of restoring order to society and returning to traditional Swedish working class morality. Mass movements were formed to fight drugs, liberals and the moral decay they represented. The newspaper of the Riksforbundet Narkotikafritt Samhalle (RNS, National Organisation for a Drug Free Society), the most powerful and extreme of the new mass movements, compared the situation in Sweden with that in the Weimar Republic (Narkotikafragan No3. 1977) and claimed that pop groups used and propagated drugs and "are marked with decadent morals that are reminiscent of the cabarets of 1930’s Germany". A leading Member of Parliament, later to become Minister of Defence, said on television "We must defend our Sweden from drugs and foreign immigrants who are terrorists". (reported in Expressen, 13.8.87) Liberals and drug takers were the new sub humans to be eliminated from the National Homeland whatever it may cost. A narcotics scare was engineered in the media by the RNS and their sympathisers in the government and police and within a very short time, the climate in Sweden changed completely. Liberal ideas and attitudes disappeared overnight as Politicians competed with each other to show who was the most hard on drugs. The chairman of the Swedish Trade Union Movement, Stig Malm, said to the press "We have just suffered through a period of piss-liberalism" as the aims of the RNS became the policy of the Swedish government. The leader of the RNS, Nils Bejerot, said in an interview in ‘Dagens Nyheter’ 22.9.1981: "The liberal, ‘soft’ line represents utterly defeated lunacies" and K.A Westerberg said to the same newspaper that "The trendy liberal establishment was stopped by Hassela, the RNS and the working masses" Swedish drug policy and the power that gave them to control society was now firmly in the hands of fanatics. Sweden has been fighting the most repressive drug war in Europe for nearly twenty years now with a range of draconian laws that would be unthinkable in more reasonable European countries. In 1988 drug use was criminalised and in 1993 the penalty for drug consumption was increased to 6 months imprisonment. Police have the power to apprehend anyone they even think looks like they are under the influence of a drug, take them to a police station and force them to undergo blood and urine tests. This could easily affect a foreign tourist in Sweden and any kind of high spirited or unconventional behaviour in the presence of a policeman could mean a stay there being a lot longer than expected. Drug users are regarded as a low form of life by a brutal Swedish police force. According to one policeman, using drugs in Sweden is not going to be a "dance in the rose garden". Commenting on a television report in which policemen were interviewed while still visibly exited after brutally throwing suspects against a wall to be searched for drugs, journalist Christian Gergils wrote: "Laws which are meant to protect people are used by the police to physically beat up the most vulnerable members of society." (Nyliberalen Nr. 3, 1994) One abuse of police power which has come to the attention of Amnesty International is the case of Osmo Vallo. According to Amnesty, police in the town of Karlstad approached Osmo Vallo, who they believed to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Despite the fact that Osmo Vallo was in no way threatening or violent, the police kicked him to the ground and set a police dog on him. After forcing him face down and handcuffing him, one of the policemen stamped hard in the middle of his back. Witnesses reported hearing a loud crack and Osmo Vallo died shortly thereafter. The policemen were only fined for not keeping a police dog under control and remain in the police force. In 1996 a special police squad was formed with the sole task of utilising the powers criminalisation of drug use gave them to hunt down drug users. Named the Ravekommissionen (Rave Squad) their job is to infiltrate raves, clubs and bars where it is suspected there may be drug users. Indicative of how Sweden regards drug users, the Rave Squad was one of the first police units to be given permission to test the new telescope clubs. The Rave Squad are trained to look for the signs of drug taking. Anyone they suspect may be under the influence of an illegal drug may suddenly find themselves thrown against a wall while a flashlight is shone in their eyes to look for tell-tale pupil reactions before being dragged away for compulsory blood tests. According to social worker Jan Quarfordt young people are nervous about how to behave. They must always be aware that they must not lick their lips or gesticulate or move in certain ways in case it is interpreted as a "sign" and they end up in a police cell. (Arbetaren no. 9 1998) Sweden must be the only country in the world where looking unduly happy, laughing or dancing too energetically can get you arrested, with the possible exception of some Islamic Fundamentalist states. How the Rave Squad regard the people they apprehend was revealed in an internal police shift report obtained by a Swedish newspaper where people are routinely referred to as "junkie", "damned junkie, "junkie shit", "druggie", "damned druggie" "druggie rat", "druggie whore", "junkie whore" and "nigger kids" (Nojesguiden, 8.3.98) How the macho thugs of the Rave Squad see themselves was revealed by Prosecutor Stefan Bergman when he told Nojesguidens reporter that "The Rave Squad works exactly like the Vikings who headed their raids to wherever they expected to find something." The same newspaper article also reported that the Rave Squad have extended their activities to spying on private houses and hanging around in stairways where they listen at apartment doors for sounds of drug abuse (whatever that may be). Despite their draconian laws, drug use and drug related crime are escalating uncontrollably in Sweden. Acording to an article in Dagens Nyheter 5.6.98, the number of hard drug abusers in Sweden has increased from 12,000 to 22,000 since the repressive laws were introduced in 1980. Interviewed in Dagens Nyheter, 26.4.95, Alec Carlberg warned that "Sweden is gliding into a new situation and it is doubtful we are prepared to handle it. Youth unemployment is record high and smoking heroin is rapidly escalating in Stockholms suburbs. Society has no power to act. We are sitting on a powder keg." Hard drug abuse is no longer a problem confined to the larger cities. The daily Aftonbladet reported 3.11.97 in an interview with Goran Petterson, chief of the anti street pushers squad of Norrkoping that last year the small town had a handful of heroin addicts, now their are well over 300. The article goes on to say that "Heroin has infected many of the countries larger cities. From Halmstad, Karlstad, Eskilstuna, Lund, Sundsvall, Skelleftea and Gothenburg come reports from the police of heroin that has become more and more common the last two or three years." The journal Nyliberalen No.3 1994 counted the financial cost of drug abuse in Sweden based on figures from the police and insurance companies. The country's 20.000 hard drug abusers spend 2500 kronor each per day to support their habit. Because stolen goods can only be sold for 20 percent of their value, addicts must steal goods worth 250 million kronor per day, about 90 billion kronor per year. The Swedish Police Authority (Rikspolisstyrelse) reported in march 1996 that police exceeded their budget in 1995 by 1 billion kronor and that they are being swamped by rising crime. The amount of solved crime is falling and the backlog of crime waiting investigation is rising. The categories of crime the police cannot keep up with are crimes of violence, narcotics offences and economic crime. In April 1997 police and public prosecutors were called to a crisis meeting to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation. The desperate tone of the meeting was summed up by Christer Van Der Kwast of Stockholm public prosecutors office who said in a statement to the press: "We are very disturbed by the situation, especially as it is not a question of small time crime, but crimes of violence. We are sitting on a time bomb." In 1996, in a major offensive to control exploding drug abuse and to show the effectiveness of repressive action, Swedish police launched, amidst a blaze of publicity, a sweeping and intensive campaign against Stockholms notorious drug taking area 'Plattan'. Called "Operation Clean Plattan" police mobilised their resources, continually harassing drug users, pulling them in for compulsory blood tests. Drug users were to get no peace. Plattan was going to be drug free. The results were a massive waste of time and resources. Writing in Dagens Nyheter, 16.2.98, Alec Carlberg called the action "A fiasco" and went on to say "Those who still believe in the effectiveness of expensive shows of force like Operation Clean Plattan are recommended to visit Plattan today where it is just as it always was despite all the public muscle flexing" Shortly after the public exposure of the Operation Clean Plattan catastrophe,came another blow to yet another high profile Swedish drug prevention scheme. An evaluation of the Swedish ' Vaga ' project was published in the journal Nordisk Alkohol och Narkotika Tidskrift (Vol 15, Nr1, 1998) . Modelled on the American ' Dare ' programme, policemen went into classrooms to teach kids to 'just say no'. According to researchers Peter Lindstrom and Robert Svensson "Children who have taken part in the project do not have a more negative attitude to drugs than children who have not. The efforts of the police can therefore be questioned." Faced with rising crime and drug use, the authorities will have to act, but considering the level of police state repression they already have, it is hard to imagine what else they can do. Writing in Dagens Nyheter, 24.3.97, three experts, Alec Carlberg of the RFHL, Leif Lenke, lecturer in Criminology, Stockholm University and Sune Sunesson, professor in Social Work, Lund University say it is time to admit that Swedish narcotics policy has collapsed. Since the repressive policy started in 1980, drug use has risen along with the increase in penalties and police actions. At the beginning of the 1980's courts handed out 1000 prison years per year for drug offences. Today the figure is 2000 prison years per year and the drug problem keeps on growing. According to the writers "The policy has not worked as intended and soon there will be no hard measures left to take. The frustration must be great when the last thumbscrew has been tightened to the last thread and we are back where we started" Drugs hysteria in Sweden is so great that any liberalisation is out of the question. The only way the Swedish drug warriors can go is in the direction of more repression. The Social Minister, Margot Wallstrom announced 8.5.98 that that the drug problem is getting out of hand and the government is to set up a commission to review ways of toughening up drug policy, to be led by Swedish EU MP Anneli Hulten. Margot Wallstrom said on setting up the commission that "In an ever more drug liberal world, it is essential that Sweden holds fast to its goal of a drug free society" The catastrophic repression policy in Sweden might be considered just a curious tale of a small country self destructing in an orgy of puritan insanity were it not for the fact that Sweden is a member of the European Union and have vowed to carry their crusade to the rest of Europe. In 1994 Sweden founded ECAD, European Cities Against Drugs and are pushing hard for the rest of Europe to adopt the 'Swedish Model'. The stated goal of ECAD is a drug free Europe by the year 2012 (ECAD newsletter No 29, 1996). As a first step in that direction ECAD, in co-operation with the government of Iceland, signed an agreement on 6.2.97 to work for a drug free Iceland by 2002. The ECAD representative on the committee to plan a drug free Iceland is the Swedish drug warrior Ake Setreus, who said in an interview in Dagens Nyheter 29.4.1995 that the communist Chinese policy of sending prostitutes and drug abusers to forced labour camps is an effective way to fight drugs. ECAD held a major prohibitionist meeting in Stockholm 12-13 May 1998. Called ‘World Cities Against Drugs - A Global Perspective’, representatives from 500 towns and cities from across the world gathered in Stockholm to hear of the 'success' of the Swedish Model. At the close of the meeting a ‘Global Declaration on Drugs’ was launched. The Declaration was presented to the Secretary General of the United Nations at the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs in June 1998. Despite all the repression, Sweden has not produced a drug free society, or even a society in which drugs use is decreasing. All the signs are that the repression will get worse and Sweden will have nothing to show for their efforts other than eroded civil liberties, crime and ever escalating drug problems. It is to be hoped they do not succeed in fooling other European countries that the Swedish Model actually works. John Yates International Journal of Drug policy, August 1998
John Yates, UKCIA

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