Norway promotes forced drug treatment under a false flag

By Nora Eide, NORML Norway

In a U.N. meeting on February 9, Geir O. Pedersen, Norway’s permanent U.N. representative, said. “Drug use and related complications are primarily public health issues and should be addressed by the healthcare system, on a basis of humane and evidence-based treatment.” And in a press release on February 12, the Norwegian government announced that it was expanding its drug court program, and called it “voluntary.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. The so-called “alternatives to incarceration” (drug courts and urine testing contracts) which Bent Høie, the Norwegian Minister of Health, among others, is advocating, are based on regular supervised urine controls.

If subjects fail tests, the government will revert back to a punitive sanction: imprisonment, fines, and a criminal record. With relapse being a symptom of addiction, the policy is far from progressive or humane as the government claims. Some alternatives may be worse, due to a net widening-effect – resulting in more people coming into contact with the judicial system and sanctions being more intrusive. In some cases, a sentence will end up being longer when a drug court participant is sent back to prison. The result is a lack of security under the rule of law.

Norway has some of the strictest drug laws in Europe. Mere use will result in a fine and a criminal record, and repeat offenders face prison time. For harder drugs, the limits to when police can give a fine and a criminal record instead of prison are quite low (a single dose). Dealers can receive sentences on par with those handed out for murder, as recently seen in a large cannabis case, where one of the defendants was given 16 years. It is therefore absurd, that ambassador Pedersen, at the same U.N. meeting, went on to claim that “drug related offenses do not meet the threshold of the most serious crimes.”

Pedersen also claimed that “children should not be subject to criminal prosecution.” However, Norway has not reformed its sentencing practice in respect of children. Instead, they are pressured into demeaning and intrusive drug control contracts that frequently do not include any therapy.

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