Ahead of Stokkeland’s speech at the Green Party’s national meeting on Saturday, the 25-year-old tells NRK that he wants to share the experience he had as a high school student in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, a few years ago. During a trip to neighboring South Africa with some student friends, the 19-year-old tried a narcotic substance he did not know what it was.
– I took an overdose of a drug which I thought was amphetamine, but which turned out to be a South African street drug which has been described as “poor man’s cocaine”. It’s scary to think that we took something we didn’t really know what it was, says Stokkeland.
He says that at first he didn’t notice much, and therefore took more and more of the drug. In the end, he had severe chest pains and a high heart rate, and it all ended with a severe panic attack. Afterwards, I mostly thought that no one dared to call for help because they were afraid of being caught for something illegal.
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– I was such an experimental youth. And it was about to go really wrong because I was afraid of being caught. I want us to stop punishing the use of drugs and rather help those who need it, says the youth politician to NRK.
Leader of MDG, Arild Hermstad, says that he thinks Stokkeland is brave in coming forward with this story.
– I am very happy that it went well and that he is doing well today, says Hermstad to NTB and continues:
– Tobias’s story shows how dangerous this can be, and we must take care of everyone who gets into problems with drugs. Don’t punish them. It is high time to get started on drug reform. This is about people’s lives and health, says the party leader.
