The police have a very important role in successful narcotic politics.
The policework has to include both young people and grown-ups, otherwise it is impossible
to follow the laws of narcotics. Compared to other countries in Europe the abuse of
narcotics is a minor problem here in Sweden, still the problem is one of the largest in
our society. Too many youths decide to try narcotics and then they are trapped and never
get a second chance in life. Many young people have, however, been saved in a case of good
co-operation between social-service, school, police, medical care and parents.
My friend Josefine and I went to the police station here in Malmoe to meet a
policeofficer, Magnus Gren, who works with narcotics, to get more information about what
they do in our society about drugs.What are the police doing in general?
Well, the police prevent and solve crimes in many different ways. Only the fact that we
just show ourselves in uniform in town will prevent it in its own way. The police have a
kind of service-profession which means that we try to help the people who phone us.
Are you doing anything particular to prevent juvenile delinquency?
- Yes, the youth has a very high priority in our work and that is because it is often
easier to influence young people and prevent them from choosing a criminal way. As a
policeman you get different tips and if you choose between a youth and a drug addict, who
has been using narcotics for years, you choose the youth. Hopefully the youth has just
started and you can do a meaningful job to prevent him from doing it again.
Can you see some kind of increase or reduction of the crimes that youths do?
- No, not really. Like perhaps you saw in the newspaper yesterday the juvenile delinquency
is the highest here in Malmoe if you compare with Gothenburg and Stockholm. What they did
not write in the article was that maybe there are not more crimes, there might be more
discoveries of crimes. You do not know that because it is just statistics.
How has the narcotics changed our society today?
- The rave movement has made things worse. A market has appeared on the rave-parties which
is a problem. Young people, who would not get in touch with drugs, get introduced to it on
the rave parties and then they get addicted to narcotics. There are also some drugs called
"designed drugs" which are special made for rave-parties.
What about the traffic and narcotics?
- We know that people with narcotics in the body drive daily. The problem is that if a
person drives in a normal way we can not today convict him of a traffic crime. The only
thing we can convict him of is a narcotic crime and that is not right.
Are the police resources enough?
- No, not really. Like in an ordinary place of work there are people who work more and
people who work less. Perhaps if all would have worked effectively the resources might
have been enough.
What is a policeman from the narcotics squad doing?
- It is absolutely not a job in the office. We are out searching and trying to find out if
tips are true or not. We also go to some parties and see if there is any abuse of
narcotics. Today we are for example going to find out if a tip about a 20 year-old-man is
right. He has probably a marijuana-plantation in his apartment and he might also produce
amphetamine there. Hopefully we will succeed in finding something.
Is it not easy to get recognised?
- No, there are quite a lot of drug addicts here in Malmoe. It has actually happened a few
times that one has been recognised but that does not usually happen.
What do you do with a person who is high on drugs?
- It depends quite a lot on the age. I think it was not until 1990-92 that it was
prohibited to be high on drugs. If a person has the symptoms we will take him to the
station and he has to leave a urine-test which we will take for analysis. Sometimes we
could also take a blood-test. Of course there are drugs which will not be shown in a
urine-test. Afterwards we interrogate them and especially which narcotic they have been
using. Hopefully there will be a police report and the case goes to a public prosecutor.
What kind of treatments are there?
- To get treatment today you really have to have a problem with narcotics. In fact it
should be far more important to help the young people who are in the danger zone and who
have done it once. They should get the help to prevent it from happening again. There is
not any treatment like that today. I do not say that everybody will do it again for that
is not the case. Some youths will not do it again in case the police is getting involved.
In some cases, like for example a pregnant single woman who takes drugs, we can write to
the ministry for health and social affairs.
Do you talk with the youth and the parents?
- Only if they are younger than 18 years old we are allowed to phone to the parents.
Otherwise we must have the youth's permission and that is something the youth is often
unwilling to give.
Can you see some kind of pattern in these young people?
- There are kids at the age of 10 who will start smoking marijuana and they will continue
year after year. Mostly it is the parents who do not care about the children and allow
them to do almost everything. I can not demand anything from the parents.
You are able to phone anonymously to the police today, what else can you do as an
individual?
- The best thing is to phone and even though it is just a suspicion you can phone to the
police and tell them about the problem. Then it is up to us to see if it is of importance.
There are quite many who phone anonymously but of course we would like even more people to
do that so that we can take as many criminals as possible. For example there are totally
"ordinary" people who work from Monday till Friday and on the weekends they take
some narcotics. On the Sunday they sleep all day and on the Monday they go to their work.
Do you usually go out to schools to inform about narcotics?
- There are special policemen who work with that and sometimes we have done it. The
problem is that if we go to one school there will come requests from other schools and we
really have no time for that. There are some former drug addicts who visit schools to
prevent students from making the same mistake they made.
The last thing he told us before we left was: "Remember to phone us if you see
anything suspicious!" Powerful policework has been able to stop the narcotic crimes.
We have to fight for a narcotic free society; you can not do everything but you can do
something. |