– SV wants complete freedom in drug policy, says justice policy spokesperson Else Marie Rødby in the Center Party. – What the Center Party is proposing is only harmful symbolic politics. We know that punishment stigmatizes, pushes people away from society and does not contribute to less drug use, answers SV’s leading justice politician, Andreas Sjalg Unneland. It led to a red-green drug feud before the national meeting of the SV and the Center Party this weekend. The background is the failed drug reform of the Solberg government and the circular from the Attorney General in April 2021, which establishes which rules apply in cases where the police want to search individuals who are suspected of possessing drugs. CONCERN: The Center Party’s Else Marie Rødby is concerned about drug use among young people and is open to giving the police new powers to uncover illegal drugs. Photo: Ragne B. Lysaker Where the Center Party believes that the police are in practice deprived of important tools for uncovering illegal drug use, SV will work further to decriminalize use and having smaller quantities of drugs in one’s pocket. Two universes – The police lack an open tool to uncover and prosecute drug crime when we see that they no longer deal with these cases, while for example the use of cocaine among young adults, says Else Marie Rødby in the Center Party. – But here we are fundamentally at odds with SV, who believe that the police should have almost nothing to do with drug crime at all, she says. ÅTVARAR: SV’s Andreas Sjalg Unneland is strongly critical of SP’s resolution proposal which will be considered at the national meeting this weekend. Photo: ISMAIL BURAK AKKAN / news SV rejects this presentation and says the police already have tools that enable them to crack down on criminal networks. – The Center Party mixes things up a lot and tries to create an image that is more inspired by TV series such as Miami Vice or Death in Oslo S, says Unneland. Wants to give the police new powers At the national meeting in Trondheim this weekend, SP will consider a resolution on drug policy. It says that the use and possession of drugs should be punishable and advocates giving the police new legal powers to uncover this. The Senterungdommen has also submitted a proposal to the national meeting which states that “help and punishment are not opposites”. – It is right and important that drug addicts are followed up by the health service, and that the municipalities are provided with funds to follow up those who need it. At the same time, efforts against drug use must be strengthened, especially among young people, and the role of the police should be central in this the work, says the proposal from the Centerungdommen. The Center Party’s drug proposal The Center Party will consider a proposal for a political resolution on drug policy at the national meeting in Trondheim this weekend. The editorial committee in the party has proposed the following: Those who are addicted to drugs must be met with health care and closely monitored by the health care system. Priority will be given to promoting drug prevention through, among other things, information campaigns and educational programmes. The use, possession and purchase of drugs shall remain a criminal offence. The police must be guaranteed legal authority to detect the use, possession and sale of drugs. The police must have the tools to carry out good preventive work. The police must be able to use the necessary coercive measures in the face of serious drug cases involving criminal networks. The police will again be able to take saliva samples in case of suspicion of drug-impaired driving. The transfers to the municipalities must be strengthened to ensure adequate follow-up of challenges related to drugs, and especially drug use among young people. Emphasis must be placed on prevention and building up aftercare after treatment. In addition, Senterungdommen has put forward a separate proposal, which includes the following points: Those who are addicted to drugs must be closely monitored by the health care system. Possession and sale of narcotic drugs shall remain illegal. Those who are over 18 and are caught with drugs must be fined based on their income. Everyone between the ages of 15 and 18 who is caught for possession or use of drugs must be summoned to an interview with a counsellor. In case of non-attendance, sanctions are imposed. Everyone in this group must also be offered a drug contract and follow-up. Follow-up of relatives must be strengthened. “Kunnskapslaust”, is the verdict from SV’s Andreas Sjalg Unneland. He believes it is well documented that punishment does not work and says the police have all the tools they need. – The Center Party proposes that the police should once again be able to search, conduct a physical examination, take urine samples and blood samples from people who have taken small doses. It is a powerful intervention against the population, and what the Attorney General has said is illegal. – This is policy and practice that has been tried for decades, without it having had any effect other than stigmatizing and bothering people, he says. Examined It is not easy to give a clear answer to the question of whether or not young people get drunk more than before. But Faktisk.no made an attempt in February. The editors looked at the Ungdata survey, the European school and school survey and FHI’s annual survey on alcohol, tobacco and drugs. The youth survey shows that most young people do not use drugs. But the survey also shows that in the last ten years there has been a small, even increase in students at secondary school who say they have used drugs. The Espad survey shows that cannabis use among 15–16-year-olds increased towards 2019. But drug use was noticeably higher around the turn of the millennium. The survey by FHI, which was carried out in collaboration with Statistics Norway, shows that cocaine use among young people has increased slightly, while the use of other drugs remains stable. In a number of media reports recently, not least in local newspapers, there have been allegations of increased drug use in several youth environments. In several cases, the police are also the source of such cases, something Attorney General Jørn Sigurd Maurud problematized during a seminar on the report to the so-called role understanding committee earlier this year. – I read these press clippings, especially from smaller local newspapers that have obviously not read the report. They follow the same scheme with “unrest”, “narcotics are flying over the village” – it is very little based on knowledge, said Maurud according to Dagbladet. SAID FROM: Attorney General Jørn S. Maurud believes that the police have for a number of years gone beyond their powers in an attempt to uncover the use and possession of illegal drugs. Photo: Peter von Tangen-Jordan Concerned But Rødby in the Center Party is concerned about drug use among young people. – I think it’s strange that SV is not more worried. Pupils at secondary schools also sound the alarm. They say that the threshold for trying drugs is lower and that many now believe that drugs have been legalised, she says. Unneland believes the Center Party is “trying to create an image of a paralyzed police and that drug use is out of control”. – We don’t see that again in reality, replies Unneland in SV. – Is it a point for SV to overcome the use of hashish and other narcotic substances? – We want drug use in society to be as low as possible. But it is a utopia to claim that you can have a drug-free society. People will get drunk. Then we have to make sure that it happens in the safest possible way, he says. – But in order to be able to give young people health care, you have to discover that they are taking drugs. Aren’t the police here a key? – There are many ways to discover that young people are using illegal drugs. And what was proposed in the drug reform was that people should receive follow-up from the healthcare system rather than the police giving people fines, ticks on their records and punishing them. Health care The Center Party’s resolution proposal advocates that drug addicts should be met with health care rather than punishment. – It nevertheless sends a clear signal that we do not want the decriminalization of drugs and that we therefore believe that uncovering and investigating drug crime should continue to be a task for the police. – Should the politicians change the rules so that the circular from the Attorney General no longer applies? – The circular from the Attorney General is a legal assessment that I think we as parliamentary politicians must respect, says Rødby. At the same time, she adds that the Storting has a responsibility to change the law when developments in society indicate this. – I think we are now in a development when it comes to drugs that we have to do something about, says Rødby. She refers to the prevention and treatment reform that the government is working on.
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Full drug dispute between SV and Sp – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
