Advertisement

How the punishment for drugs possession in Norway is changing

Frazer Norwell
Frazer Norwell - [email protected]
How the punishment for drugs possession in Norway is changing
The Norwegian Attorney General has announced that reduced sentences will be handed down to drug addicts. Pictured is a drug user preparing their narcotics.

Norway's Attorney General recently issued new guidelines for how the authorities should handle drug possession charges. 

Advertisement

Last week, the Attorney General announced updated guidelines for how the police should work with drug possession charges

The Attorney General has said that drug addicts should not be prosecuted for having drugs for personal use. The Supreme Court has said that this advice applies to those found with up to five grams of heroin, amphetamine or cocaine. 

Lawmakers also say that those caught with "modest exceedance" of this limit should receive a reduced sentence or punishment. The Attorney General has advised that fair exceedance would be a quantity of narcotics of up to ten grams. 

Three recent rulings in the Supreme Court, which saw three drug addicts handed reduced sentences or no punishment at all for being in possession of drugs, prompted the new guidelines. 

"The decisions from the Supreme Court and the Attorney General's guidelines entail a change in the police's work with drugs. The prosecuting authority will no longer punish drug addicts' acquisition, possession and storage of small doses of drugs, and the police will carefully consider whether a criminal case should be opened in these cases," Beate Brinch Sand, head of the prosecution service in Oslo Police District said to public broadcaster NRK.

Advertisement

One unclear thing is how the new guidelines will affect recreational drug users who are not addicted or dependent on narcotics. 

However, Marius Dietrichson from the Norwegian Bar Association said it was probable that they were also less likely to be charged under the new advice issued by the Attorney General. 

"The consideration of equality before the law indicates that they too (recreational users) should benefit from this changed practice. Namely by avoiding punishment for being caught with "normal amounts" for one's own use," Dietrichson explained to NRK. 

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court handed a lower sentence to a recreational drug user for possession of an illegal substance. 

Last year, the Conservative Solberg government presented a proposed drug reform package which was voted down in parliament. 

The current Labour government told the NRK that it was working on its own drug reform package. 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also