Drug reform, Erna Solberg | The drug reform seems to be postponed – embarrassing, according to the drug organisation

The government is still working on preparing its drug reform, which was promised last year until the start of 2024. Actors in the drug field think it is embarrassing.

Ap voted in 2021 against the Erna Solberg government’s drug reform, which, among other things, advocated the decriminalization of several narcotic substances. At the same time, the party went to the polls to introduce its own reform.

This was confirmed by the Ministry of Health in 2023 as coming at the beginning of 2024. Now, however, the Ministry of Justice informs TV 2 that the parliamentary report is still being worked on, and that they cannot give a date for when it will arrive.

– As you know, the government has set up a committee to look more closely at criminal law and criminal procedural issues in the upcoming prevention and treatment reform. The committee will submit its report in the form of an NOU before the summer – and this work is important for the overall message to the Storting, the ministry writes in an email to the channel.

– Embarrassing

The Ministry of Health will not answer whether the government’s reform has been postponed, but says the government is working fully on the notification.

Ina Roll Spinnangr, general manager of the Safer Drug Policy Association, reacts to the use of time.

– It is embarrassing that it is taking so long, but I think very few have expectations that the reform proposal will lead to major positive changes, she says to TV 2.

Asking the mother party for speed

There is also murmuring within the company’s own ranks when rumors of a postponement begin to swirl. Andrine Seppola, who is the leader of Senterungdommen, believes it takes too long.

– We have no time to lose, because drug use increases every single year, young people have their lives destroyed and lives are lost. This reform should have been presented earlier, and it is of course for the Senterungdommen that a new drug reform should address both the health and justice parts of the drug policy together, Seppola tells NTB.

(© NTB)