Reporting on drugs in Nordic

There is relatively close contact among the Nordic countries with regard to drugs. Co-operation exists, for example, between enforcement agencies and customs services, on questions of policy, as well as in research activities. Nordic "co-operation" also takes place at the level of the drug users. Denmark, and particularly Copenhagen, has long been identified as a Nordic "Mecca" for buying drugs. One section of Copenhagen, called Christiania, is a free area for drug users; it has widely been regarded as an inter-Nordic problem. Social workers from Finland, Norway and Sweden have been stationed in Copenhagen for a long time. Also, for several years young people in Finland with drug problems have been "exported" to Sweden. Seen in this context, drug problems and drug policy in the Nordic countries are, in many ways, interwoven. However, there are some large variations with regard to the extent of the drug problem despite the geographic closeness. Briefly, one can say that Denmark and Sweden have the biggest problems; Norway comes next; and Finland and Iceland have relatively small problems, particularly with regard to intravenous use (Olsson 1989). Relatively large differences also exist in terms of control policy measures. In general, Denmark has a more liberal attitude toward drugs than the rest