OSLO - In a country so wary of drug abuse that it limits the sale of aspirin, Pal-Orjan Johansen, a Norwegian researcher, is pushing what would seem a doomed cause: the rehabilitation of LSD. It matters little to him that the psychedelic drug has been banned here and around the world for more than 40 years. Mr. Johansen pitches his effort not as a throwback to the hippie hedonism of the 1960s, but as a battle for human rights and good health. [continues 1229 words]
Is dropping acid a reasonable way to deal with a drinking problem? Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's department of neuroscience think there's some merit to the idea. They've gone through data from experiments conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, and say there is evidence that subjects given LSD were more likely to make progress in dealing with a harmful alcohol habit. Their paper, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, took a broad look at six different experimental trials, including one in Canada in 1966, involving 536 subjects being treated for alcohol problems. [continues 288 words]
LSD Could Treat Addictions, Norwegian Study Suggests Is dropping acid a reasonable way to deal with a drinking problem? Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's department of neuroscience think there's some merit to the idea. They've gone through data from experiments conducted in the 1960s and 1970s and say there is evidence that subjects given LSD were more likely to make progress in dealing with a harmful alcohol habit. Their paper, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, took a broad look at six different experimental trials - including one in Canada in 1966 - involving 536 subjects being treated for alcohol problems. [continues 343 words]
I'm writing about the story Cannabis suspects pack jails. It seems to me that in order to properly evaluate your nation's drug policies, you need to compare and contrast the drug policies of other nations with substantially different drug policies.I suggest that you use the United States and the Czech Republic for your comparison. In the Czech Republic citizens can legally use, possess, grow, sell or purchase small quantities of cannabis. In the United States, many otherwise law-abiding citizens are locked in prison cages for possessing, growing or selling various amounts of cannabis. [continues 134 words]
Nearly 60 persons, mostly of Vietnamese background, are now in custody in Norway after police raided yet another house south of Oslo Wednesday night and found a new cannabis plantation inside. The modest house in rural Enebakk contained nearly 500 cannabis plants, all being cultivated under sophisticated watering, lighting and heating systems that ravaged the home's interior. The raid was the latest in an ever-growing list of cannabis seizures, as police uncover a widespread covert network of hash and marijuana production in Norway. Similar operations have been uncovered in a long list of other countries as well, in Europe and North America. [continues 127 words]
Surge in Drugs, Thefts Means Crooks Wait Years for a Cell OSLO - Aida Hassan was halfway through a routine day in the office when her boyfriend called. "I must tell you something," he said. "Can you come home for lunch?" The couple had met in a disco four years earlier. Then they had a child, bought a house and settled into suburban life. They talked about getting married. Now Vidar Sandli had shocking news: The next day, he would go off to prison. [continues 1198 words]
Norwegian Capital Tops Europe's Overdose Deaths League Its standard of living was officially recognised this month as the best money can buy, but Norway has a darker, less publicised claim to fame: Oslo has become Europe's drug overdose capital and is awash with heroin. The city is infamously expensive. A pint of beer will set you back $7.50, a packet of cigarettes $8.50. Heroin, however, is relatively cheap - one tenth of a gram costs about the same as 20 Marlboro. [continues 357 words]
OSLO, Aug. 2 - It is a sunny morning, and the Oslo Fjord dances with reflections. Festive pennants flutter from a departing North Sea ferry, bicyclists pedal past the colonnade of the stock exchange building and sleek trams glide by, filled with downtown workers. Oslo, capital of oil-rich Norway, is springing to daily life, but there is little movement from shabby clutches of people who have also become part of this harborside landscape. They slump in a row by a derelict corrugated tin warehouse and lie curled up on the surrounding docks. Their bodies are emaciated, and their faces are as spent and vacant as any that Edvard Munch, the Norwegian artist of angst, ever painted. Many are asleep, others nod their heads listlessly. [continues 1056 words]
In a Country Where Drugs Cost Less Than Alcohol, Heroin Addiction Is Causing Growing Alarm To Norwegian Authorities Oslo- Its standard of living was officially recognised this week as the best money can buy but oil-rich Norway has a darker, less publicised claim to fame: Oslo has become Europe's drug overdose capital and is awash with heroin. The city is infamously expensive. A pint of beer will set you back UKP 5, a pack of cigarettes UKP 5.50 and even a Big Mac costs close to UKP 3. Heroin, however, is relatively cheap-one tenth of a gram costs about the same as 20 Marlboro. [continues 889 words]
OSLO - Kim is a heroin addict in oil-rich Norway, ranked the world's best place to live. But on the streets of Oslo, the 26-year-old's chances of dying of a drug overdose are greater than in any other European city. In a country with one of the most generous welfare systems in the world thanks to North Sea oil wealth, Norwegians are more likely to die from drugs than in a car accident. "Our society is perhaps too good in some ways. People have everything they need but still struggle to find their place, a meaning to life," Social Affairs Minister Ingjerd Schou told Reuters. [continues 780 words]
A government-appointed commission will soon set off some political dynamite, reports newspaper Aftenposten. The commission recommends decriminalizing narcotics use and possession, liberalizing pornography rules and raising the blood-alcohol limit allowed for driving a car. The proposals are sure to spur heated debate among politicians who appointed the commission back in 1994 to "modernize" Norwegian laws. The commission's conclusions are due to be turned over to Justice Minister Odd Einar Dorum in March. The commission, according to Aftenposten, believes only the sale of narcotics should be penalized. Both usage and possession would be allowed under the commission's proposal. [continues 153 words]
Oslo: The myth that cannabis is harmless has been destroyed. The Forensic Toxicology Institute reports that six Norwegians have died as a direct result of smoking hash in a period of six years. - - We have made a remarkable discovery says the chief of the Forensic Toxicology Institute, Jorg Morland. The findings were published in the latest issue of the journal Mot Stoff (Against Drugs), published by the National Organisation Against Drug Abuse, and they shall shortly be published in an international journal. [continues 163 words]
A report by the Norwegian governments narcotics commission shows that ever increasing numbers of Norwegians use drugs, reports TT. Drug use is on the rise despite the government increasing spending to halt the spread of drugs by nearly threefold. According to the commission the rise is due to increased smuggling and a more liberal attitude amongst the young. [end]
Norwegian youths over dose on caffeine tablets which they buy on the Swedish side of the border. The youths take large doses of the tablets to stay awake to partake in various entertainment. Overdosing can, according to Norwegian doctors, interfere with the heart rhythm and, in large quantities also lead to death. Caffeine tablets can not be bought without a prescription in Norway. As early as 1980, after a serious miss use was discovered, the medication became controlled. In Sweden, however, that's not the case. [continues 210 words]
OSLO, NORWAY - An apparent drug smuggling effort was foiled when the exhausted courier -- a pigeon -- landed on an offshore oil platform to rest. The crew of the Norwegian B-11 platform in the North Sea spotted the bird on Sunday afternoon, and saw something taped to its legs, the newspaper Verdens Gang reported yesterday. They caught the bird, and found what appeared to be five grams of hashish, the newspaper said. 'NEW WAY?' "We've never heard of anything like it," worker Endre Nodeland was quoted as saying in the paper. "Is this the new way of smuggling drugs?" The bird is being cared for by the crew. Nodeland said he'll turn the hash over to police when he returns to Norway. The B-11 platform, 304 km south of Norway, transports natural gas to Germany. [end]
A Norwegian court has refused to extradite a suspected drug smuggler to the United States, saying he might suffer inhumane conditions in an American jail. The suspect, Henry Hendriksen, 49, was arrested in 1997 in Stavanger, Norway, on charges of smuggling about 50 tons of hashish into the United States. The charges were filed in Vermont. Hendriksen fought extradition in a case that reached the Norwegian Supreme Court late last year. In a unanimous decision, the high court questioned whether U.S. jails meet the humanitarian standard required for extradition under Norwegian law and sent the case back to a district court. The district court decided July 16 not to extradite Hendriksen. Defense attorney John Christian Elden said he assumed Hendriksen would be granted asylum. [end]
Majority for new narcotics policy Part of the Norwegian narcotics policy can change direction today. The Workers' Party introduces a ten point plan of action which, among other measures will offer metadon therapy and so called "injection rooms" all over the country. The plan of action will probably get the support of the Progressive Party (FRP) and can therefore be expected to pass. It is in connection with a parlamentary question from John Alvheim (FRP) to Minister of Social Services, Magnhild Melveit Kleppa, about overdose deaths, that the Workers' Party (AP) today will present a bill with ten demands about the narcotic addicts care to the central Government. [continues 410 words]
Introduced in the present Norwegian narco-policy debates has of late French successes with replacing methadon with bupronorphine been mentioned. In a debate in the Storting today said the Minister of Social Services that she will visit France in the next two weeks to obtain first-hand information of the French experiences. - - After that, in consultations with the Government's Public Health Department and other authorities we shall see if similar trials should be conducted in Norway as well, said Melveit Kleppa. [continues 135 words]
SMUGGLERS have been bringing heroin into Norway inside the corpses of murdered infants, according to a suspect in a drugs-related killing whose claims were leaked to an Oslo newspaper. The 'Dagbladet' newspaper said its report was based on a transcript of a police interrogation in Stavanger, a main port city in Norway's south-west region. Police yesterday refused to confirm or deny the story. The suspect claimed that smugglers of Vietnamese origin bought infants from prostitutes in Paris and Germany, and took them to Denmark where they were killed. [continues 436 words]
Is Siv Jensen of Fremskrittspartiet [The Progress Party-right wing/liberalist] advertising for cocaine? Yes, says Member of Parliament Anne Helen Rui of Arbeiderpartiet [Labour-centre/left wing]. This is the reason: Before the holidays MP Jensen wore a T-shirt of the popular Japanese bran d "Kookai" in Stortinget [the Norwegian parliament]. The brand name was written across the chest. This was too much for MP Rui - but she managed to control herself. That is until NRKs [Norwegian broadcasting company] journalist phoned Rui this week, to find out how the governments work against drugs was doing - in particular with regards to the new law Rui has proposed that would ban drug symbols on jewelry and clothing. [continues 352 words]
Inside Norway
