Sweden probes its high level of drug-related deaths

An inquiry has been launched in Sweden to find the reasons why the country has one of the highest EU rates of deaths from drugs.

The country has a zero-tolerance policy, but nonetheless the number of deaths linked to the use of narcotics has soared in recent years, rising to 93 deaths per million of adults in 2014. This is approaching five times the European average of 19.2 deaths per million.

In 1995 the country recorded 70 cases of drug-induced mortality, but by 2014 this had shot up to 609.

The Swedish government has charged its National Board of Health and Welfare to investigate and to produce by the end of April next year an action plan with effective measures for reducing the number of such deaths.

The use of illicit drugs was criminalised in Sweden in 1988 after the failure of a two-year effort to introduce greater tolerance towards drug use.

Sweden now deploys an extensive drug awareness programme in its schools. Just 9% of Swedish pupils say they have tried cannabis, compared to around 25% in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands and 39% in France, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

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