Add new comment

Dear Anonymous: there are much stronger indicators of problem drug use, for example rates of infections, overdose death, average life age, life expectancy etc. among drug users. Sweden produces worse results according to these indicators. It is true that less people experience with illicit drug use in Sweden, but people who do have much worse chances to avoid infections, death and crime than those in the Netherlands. The question is if we want a drug policy that focuses on reducing the number of people who try drugs to maintain the moral comfort of mainstream society, or with other words, to pursue a cosmetic morality, or a drug policy that focuses on reducing drug related harms and suffering. We have to ask the question what is really harmful for society: those majority of people who experience with drugs without significant adverse effects, or people who get infected with HIV or overdose on drugs because of the lack of services which could help them to survive, in addition, prevent them to commit crimes. Should we purse a drug free society at the cost of public health and security? No. Drugs are prohibited in the name of publich health protection - the principle behind the idea of abstinence is also the protection of health and safety. But we cannot subordinate the principle of public health and security to the idea of prohibition and abstinence.