Swedish Drug Policy in the Twenty-First Century: A Policy Model Going Astray

Abstract

During the 1990s, the drug problem in Sweden stabilized in spite of a heroin wave on the European continent and in the United Kingdom. The preconditions for this control policy are discussed, as are the advantages of the Swedish drug control model with its massiveness regarding prevention, treatment, and repression. When drawing conclusions from the 1980s, focus has been placed on zero tolerance and dissociation of harm reduction activities in connection with the economic crisis that, although temporary, hit Swedish society in the 1990s. This resulted in the control policy's having a list so that preventive measures and treatment had to give in on behalf of further strengthening of the police in the drug control model. The change in focus toward an even more pronounced zero tolerance approach did not yield any visible results regarding drug use. Experimenting with drugs and heavy drug use increased considerably during the 1990s.