[Bookstore]

The Swedish drug control system

An in-depth review and analysis

Author: Tim Boekhout van Solinge
Pages: 224
Language: English
Date: 1997
ISBN 90 5330 211 5
Price: € 20

This book is also available on our website.

In recent years the Swedish drug control system has been much discussed as a drug policy model. Their restrictive approach receives strong support from the Swedish population and is often presented as an effective answer to the drug problem. On the international political scene Sweden proclaims the effectiveness of its drug policy and has become one of the main opponents of drug policy reform - a development that has been reinforced since Sweden joined the European Union in 1995. In international drug policy debates, prohibitionists repeatedly refer to the Swedish model as an example of how a restrictive drug policy, combined with education and treatment, can be effective.

The Swedish Drug Control System is the first thorough analysis of Swedish drug policy and critically examines the claims about drug use and drug policy in Sweden. This book places Swedish drug policy in historical context and shows that the 'Swedish model' can only be understood in terms of the social conditions under which this policy developed. It recounts the Swedish experience with intoxicants such as alcohol and amphetamine, and it discusses the scientific evidence on which the drug policy is based. It describes the Swedish drug policy in practice and offers new understanding of the rise in drug use Sweden is facing at the end of the 1990s.

Tim Boekhout van Solinge is a researcher at the Centre for Drug Research (CEDRO) of the University of Amsterdam.