scholarly journals Retreat or Entrenchment? Drug Policies in the Nordic Countries at a Crossroads

10.16993/bbo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Drug Policy ◽  
Criminal Policy ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Gateway Theory ◽  
Drug Policies ◽  
Temperance Movements ◽  
The Individual

The drug policies of the Nordic countries have been relatively strict. Since this seems to contradict the internationally recognized liberal criminal policy in general, analyses have been devoted to try to understand this gap. Why doesn’t the “Scandinavian exceptionalism” apply to the drug policies? The new question in relation to drug policy is, however, if and how the Nordic countries will adapt to a situation when several countries all over the world are questioning ‘the war on drugs’ and orienting themselves in the direction of decriminalization and legalization. An analysis of a possible change in drug policies must be undertaken against the background of the existing policies. There are both similarities and differences between the five countries. A common feature is a stress on the demand side through both treatment and punishments directed against the user and abuser. Differences are shown in degrees of toughness in drug policies with Sweden strongest stressing a zero-tolerance stand and Denmark being the most liberal in the Nordic context. The strong welfare state ideology of all the countries is important for understanding the obstacles to a more liberal and permissive drug policy. The welfare state is an interventionist state. To not do anything about what is considered to be a problem both for the individual and the society is just not an option. In most of the countries the traditions from the temperance movements also have influenced the drug policies through the stepping-stone or gateway theory, not making a distinction between soft and hard drugs. At the same time, a number of facts and processes work in the direction of change. The drug policies of the countries have not delivered, including high numbers of drug-related deaths. The debate has opened up in just a short period of time. Many of the political youth parties demand decriminalisation of use of drugs and so have some public authorities. Human rights arguments are increasingly being put forward as a critique of police interventions. A tendency for politicians to meet the critique seems to be to separate the marginal abuser from the recreational user. The first one should be given treatment and care according to welfare state ideology. The second one, however, could be punished since the user in line with neo-liberal theory can choose and by the use contributes to the drug trade and even the killings in poor suburbs. The Nordic countries stand at a crossroads, but what new roads will be taken is far from clear.

scholarly journals Figuras e facetas da lógica proibicionista-medicalizante nas políticas sobre drogas no Brasil / Figures and facets of the prohibitionist-medicalinzg logic in Brazilian drug policies

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
José de Araújo Brito Neto ◽  
Flavia Cristina Silveira Lemos ◽  
Dolores Cristina Gomes Galindo ◽  
Alcindo Antônio Ferla ◽  
Michelle Ribeiro Côrrea
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Drug Policy ◽  
Criminal Policy ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
The Core ◽  
Drug Policies ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Política Criminal

ResumoEste artigo visa apresentar uma análise teórica a respeito da lei e norma na definição da opção política proibicionista no Brasil, nas últimas décadas. O debate central é como as políticas sobre drogas têm sido embasadas na perspectiva proibicionista. No bojo dessa postura de proibição legal, a tática repressiva ganhou expressão social e foi inscrita no plano da soberania jurídica normatizadora. Os movimentos de lei e ordem cada vez maisse entrecruzaram e passaram a requisitar a criminalizaçãodo uso e do comércio de drogas, em especial as consideradas ilícitas em um intricado campo de governamentalidades resultante de uma política criminal encarceradora e de umaperspectiva medicalizante do consumo de drogas legais, taiscomo os psicofármacos. Paralelamente, um conjunto de práticas discursivas e de poderoperaram conjuntamente na definição do que são drogas e de quais são lícitas e quais são ilícitas, por meio de um sistema de repartição complexo.Palavras-chave: Proibicionismo; Governamentalidades; Medicalização; Práticas sociais; Política sobre Drogas.AbstractThis paper offers a theoretical analysis of law and norm in the definition of Brazil’s prohibitionist drug policy in recent decades. The central argument advances that drug policies have been based on a prohibitionist perspective. At the core of this stance of legal prohibition, repressive tactics gained social acceptanceand were inscribed in a plan towards a normalizing judicial sovereignty. Law and order movements increasingly intercrossed and instituted the criminalization of drug use and the drug trade- particularly for those deemed illegal - by means of an intricate field of governmentalities which resulted in a carceral criminal policy and a medicalized view of legal drug use, including psychotropics. In parallel, a set of discursive and powerpractices operated jointly to define through a complex system of classification what constitutes a drug and which drugs are to be considered legal or illegal.Keywords: Prohibition; Governmentalities; Medicalization; Social Practices; Drug Policy.

scholarly journals On the Possible Deconstruction of the Swedish Drug Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-158
Author(s):  
Henrik Tham
Keyword(s):  
Drug Policy ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Government ◽  
Drug Free

Sweden has the strictest drug policy among the Nordic countries. The debate for a change has clearly increased in the last years and public authorities have come out in favour of evaluating the effects of criminalization of use. The government, however, sticks to “Sweden drug-free society” and increases penalization.

scholarly journals A Century of Dissonance and Harmony in Swedish Intoxication Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 239-265
Author(s):  
Johan Edman
Keyword(s):  
Drug Policy ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Alcohol Policies ◽  
The Future ◽  
Drug Policies

The traditionally strict alcohol policies of the Nordic countries have all been liberalized. This leads to an increasing policy gap in relation to the drug policies. A prognosis is made about the future of drug policy in Sweden based on the development of alcohol policy – the market will ultimately decide.

scholarly journals On the biopolitics of humane drug policies: What can we learn from 19th century sobriety boards?

2021 ◽  
pp. 145507252110158
Author(s):  
Kenneth Arctander Johansen ◽  
Michel Vandenbroeck ◽  
Stijn Vandevelde
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Drug Policy ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Chief Executives ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Drug Policies ◽  
Drug Dependent ◽  
And Control ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Drug Policy Reform

Background: In accordance with recommendations from The United Nations’ Chief Executives Board of Coordination, several countries are in the process of reforming their punitive drug policies towards health-based approaches – from punishment to help. The Portuguese model of decriminalisation is generally seen as a good model for other countries and has been scientifically described in favourable terms, and not much scrutinised. Method: This article draws on foucauldian archaeological and genealogical approaches in order to understand and compare governance logics of the 19th century Norwegian sobriety boards and 21st century Portuguese commissions. In doing this, we problematize contemporary drug policy reform discussions that point to the “Portuguese model”, which aims to stop punishing and start helping drug-dependent people, are problematised. Findings: The Portuguese commissions investigate whether drug-using people are dependent or not. Dependency, circumstances of consumption and their economy are considered when the commission decides on penalising, assisting, or treating the person, or a combination of all this. This model was studied alongside the Norwegian sobriety boards mandated by the Sobriety Act that was implemented in 1932. Sobriety boards governed poor alcoholics. Authorities from the sobriety movement were central in creating sobriety policies that culminated in sobriety boards. The Portuguese commissions have similarities to Norwegian sobriety boards. They make use of sanctions and treatment to govern people who use illicit substances to make them abstain, with the view that this is emancipatory for these people. The different apparatuses have distinct and different ways of making up, and governing their subjects. Conclusion: This article contributes to debates on drug policy reforms and aims to investigate whether they might produce biopower effects of governance masked by an emancipatory language. There is a need for critical studies on drug policy reforms to avoid policies that maintain divisions and control marginalised populations.

Recovery Capital, Drug Policy and the Cycle of Incarceration

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Drug Policy ◽  
Marked Improvement ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Alcohol Problem ◽  
Prison Inmates ◽  
Internal Process ◽  
Recovery Capital ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Recovering Addicts

By some estimates, more than half of prison inmates in America have a drug or alcohol problem (Mumola and Karberg 2006). Existing models of treatment for these individuals, both inside and outside prison, have typically focused on the individual addict. These interventions often neglect the users' families and communities, and view poverty and marginalization as tangential to recovery—which is seen instead purely as an individual, internal process. This perspective defines addiction as a brain disease, and emphasizes the need of recovering addicts to learn new skills and to take personal responsibility for their actions and lives (Committee on Addictions of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, 2002). These models, though a marked improvement over the idea of drug addiction as a moral failing, place an over-riding emphasis on the individual at the expense of the economic and social context.

At the Origins of Neo-Liberalism: The Free Economy and the Strong State, 1930–1947

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
BEN JACKSON
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Public Controversy ◽  
Strong State ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Market Liberalism ◽  
The Welfare State

ABSTRACTIt is often suggested that the earliest theorists of neo-liberalism first entered public controversy in the 1930s and 1940s to dispel the illusion that the welfare state represented a stable middle way between capitalism and socialism. This article argues that this is an anachronistic account of the origins of neo-liberalism, since the earliest exponents of neo-liberal doctrine focused on socialist central planning rather than the welfare state as their chief adversary and even sought to accommodate certain elements of the welfare state agenda within their market liberalism. In their early work, neo-liberal theorists were suspicious of nineteenth-century liberalism and capitalism; emphasized the value commitments that they shared with progressive liberals and socialists; and endorsed significant state regulation and redistribution as essential to the maintenance of a free society. Neo-liberals of the 1930s and 1940s therefore believed that the legitimation of the market, and the individual liberty best secured by the market, had to be accomplished via an expansion of state capacity and a clear admission that earlier market liberals had been wrong to advocate laissez-faire.

scholarly journals Dalmatinski šesterolisti - sličnosti i razlike

Ars Adriatica ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Pavuša Vežić
Keyword(s):  
Source Model ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Original Matrix ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Interior Space ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The Individual

The discussion emphasizes the peculiarity and individuality of both the shape and style of Dalmatian hexaconchs. Together with the rotunda of Holy Trinity at Zadar, they surely represent the most original architectural creation of early medieval Dalmatia and its specific cultural milieu which grew from a twofold tradition in a true symbiosis of the European East and West in the Adriatic area. Their mutual interdependence in Dalmatia was articulated through the individual shapes of religious architecture. These hexaconchs are a form specific to only the innermost part of Dalmatia, centred on the area between Zadar and Split, and deep into the hinterland of these towns, which corresponded to the Croatian principality.Certainly, buildings as special as this had their own original matrix - an individual spatial composition and a specific structure which formed their body. Without this, the hexaconchs would not have possessed the originality which has been observed by all the scholars who have written about them. Indeed, they have their own shape and style. By analyzing and interpreting the legacy of Dalmatian religious architecture, it seems plausible to assume that the early Christian baptistery of Zadar Cathedral may have served as a model not only for their hexaconchal shape and spatial structure but also for their dimensions and proportions. In the regional architecture prior to the period when the hexaconchs were built, no other building, aside from the Zadar baptistery, had such a shape and such a compositional compatibility with the hexaconchs; the very structure and measurements of their interior space. However, the architectural style of the hexaconchs, which display pilaster strips on their exteriors, and their vocabulary of pre-Romanesque language find their parallels on the monumental rotunda of Holy Trinity - a chapel adjacent to the baptistery itself, located nearby in the same episcopal complex - more than on any other late Antique or early medieval building both in the immediate region and in the whole Adriatic basin. For this reason, the search for the origin of the shape and style of Dalmatian hexaconchs leads us to Zadar and it is no wonder that almost every scholar who has studied this group of buildings has pointed to this fact. Their geographical distribution also witnesses this influence in its own way: two hexaconchs can be found at Zadar, while four or even five more are located in the wider Zadar area, adding up to seven out of the ten Dalmatian hexaconchs in total.This number implies that this group of rotundas, being characteristic for a specific period in Dalmatia, was created in a relatively short period of time. Moreover, it points to the building and carving workshops which, drawing upon the same source model, constructed the hexaconchs and provided them with stone liturgical furnnishings. In particular, further indications can be found in the production of the socalled Benedictine carving workshop, probably located at Zadar, a workshop from the time of Prince Trpimir which produced the furnishings for the hexaconchs at Pridraga and Kašić, and the carving workshop from Trogir which was responsible for the carvings at Trogir and Brnaze. All of these, with regard to the hexaconchs, testify to predominantly early ninth-century production, and represent the main argument for the dating of these interesting Dalmatian rotundas to the same time. Apart from their original pre-Romanesque shape, the majority of the free-standing hexaconchal rotundas were provided with early Romanesque additions during the course of time, and these additions turned these hexaconchs into small complexes of sorts. Vestibules created in this period suggest two possiblities: according to one, the vestibules added in this manner were actually a kind of exterior crypt, spaces where sarcophagi could be housed, and according to the other, some of these vestibules were also provided with bell-towers built on top of them. The latter possibility is implied by the dispositions of the suggested bell-towers and the strength of the supporting substructions (e.g. the Stomorica church at Zadar or the hexaconch at Kašić), but also by the stylistic elements which point to the early Romanesque, and architectural details, the function of which indicates a bell-tower (e.g. impost capitals of the Stomorica church or St Chrysogonus at Zadar, and an octogonal colonette from Kašić).

scholarly journals Barriers and facilitators to adherence to national drug policies on antibiotic prescribing and dispensing in Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fosiul Alam Nizame ◽  
Dewan Muhammad Shoaib ◽  
Emily K. Rousham ◽  
Salma Akter ◽  
Mohammad Aminul Islam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Policy ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Barriers And Facilitators ◽  
Drug Shop ◽  
Antibiotic Prescribing ◽  
National Drug ◽  
National Drug Policy ◽  
Drug Policies ◽  
The Government

Abstract Background The National Drug Policy in Bangladesh prohibits the sale and distribution of antibiotics without prescription from a registered physician. Compliance with this policy is poor; prescribing antibiotics by unqualified practitioners is common and over-the-counter dispensing widespread. In Bangladesh, unqualified practitioners such as drug shop operators are a major source of healthcare for the poor and disadvantaged. This paper reports on policy awareness among drug shop operators and their customers and identifies current dispensing practices, barriers and facilitators to policy adherence. Methods We conducted a qualitative study in rural and urban Bangladesh from June 2019 to August 2020. This included co-design workshops (n = 4) and in-depth interviews (n = 24) with drug shop operators and customers/household members, key informant interviews (n = 12) with key personnel involved in aspects of the antibiotic supply chain including pharmaceutical company representatives, and model drug shop operators; and a group discussion with stakeholders representing key actors in informal market systems namely: representatives from the government, private sector, not-for-profit sector and membership organizations. Results Barriers to policy compliance among drug shop operators included limited knowledge of government drug policies, or the government-led Bangladesh Pharmacy Model Initiative (BPMI), a national guideline piloted to regulate drug sales. Drug shop operators had no clear knowledge of different antibiotic generations, how and for what diseases antibiotics work contributing to inappropriate antibiotic dispensing. Nonetheless, drug shop operators wanted the right to prescribe antibiotics based on having completed related training. Drug shop customers cited poor healthcare facilities and inadequate numbers of attending physician as a barrier to obtaining prescriptions and they described difficulties differentiating between qualified and unqualified providers. Conclusion Awareness of the National Drug Policy and the BPMI was limited among urban and rural drug shop operators. Poor antibiotic prescribing practice is additionally hampered by a shortage of qualified physicians; cultural and economic barriers to accessing qualified physicians, and poor implementation of regulations. Increasing qualified physician access and increasing training and certification of drug shop operators could improve the alignment of practices with national policy.

scholarly journals Criminal Law Protection of Reproductive Health: Current Challenges

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-153
Author(s):  
E. L. Sidorenko
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Human Genome ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
Criminal Policy ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Criminal Legislation

The subject of the research is the specifics of the criminal law protection of reproductive health in the Russian legislation. The topic was chosen due to the increasing dynamics of crimes related to limitation on the reproductive rights of women and men and unauthorized manipulation of the human genome. Despite the growing need for providing a regulatory framework for this kind of relationships, the system of their criminal law protection is only beginning to take shape, therefore, a necessity arises to revise traditional approaches to the protection of the individual. Therefore, the purpose of the paper was to understand the system of criminal law protection of reproductive health in terms of its compliance with trends of medical practices and dynamics of socially significant diseases based on both traditional principles of scientific analysis and the results of applying sociological methods of data processing, which made it possible to identify the most significant directions of the Russian criminal policy development. Moreover, the critical analysis method was used in the research that showed the inconsistency of the system of criminal law prevention of criminal abortions, contamination with socially significant diseases and illegal use of the human genome. Based on the research findings, an author’s model of criminal prevention of attacks on reproductive health has been built and its systemic assessment is given. It is concluded that the legislator is inconsistent in assessing the attributes of an unlawful abortion; the accounting of contamination with certain socially significant diseases is inadequate; the laws prohibiting the use of the human genome need to be included into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The conclusions formulated in the paper have practical importance and can be taken into account by the legislator in the reform of the current criminal legislation.

scholarly journals REGULATIONS IN THE SOCIAL WELFARE STATE: NORDIC COUNTRIES AND TURKEY EXAMPLE

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nagihan Ozkanca Andic ◽  
Ekrem Karayilmazlar
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Welfare State

The Public Expenditure/GDP ratio is one of the most significant metrics that measure the state's share of the economy. It can be said that there is an interventionist state type in countries where this rate is high, or it can be argued that the share of the public sector in the economy is low in countries where this rate is low. It is also possible to argue that the countries' economic, sociological, and political factors play an essential role in determining this ratio. Regulations, which are the most important tools of the welfare state, may arise through economic controls as well as through social policies. This study aims to find an answer to the question of whether this situation is possible for a developing country such as Turkey while Nordic countries, which determine a system different from other welfare models, succeed in raising social welfare without giving up the principles such as equality and justice that they have despite the globalization effect. The data obtained by various methods were subjected to comparison using the Data Envelopment Analysis method in order to achieve this purpose. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0777/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

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