- In the urgent situation we find ourselves in, we must in any case dare to investigate the matter: What could it look like and what consequences could it have?
says Sunita Memetovic, lawyer.
The arguments she puts forward in a recent debate article in UNT are, among other things, that Sweden is in the top tier of statistics on drug-related deaths in the EU.
Many young people have a liberal view of cannabis, she believes, and that the illegal drug market in turn creates gang conflicts and shootings.
Sunita Memetovic thus joins the opinions expressed by the majority of professionals from various disciplines, for example recently the criminology professor Henrik Tham.
The Public Health Agency has also suggested in a 2020 report that "the Narcotics Penalty Act including the criminalization of personal use from 1988 needs to be evaluated".
Addiction researchers: "Simplified conclusions"
But the addiction researcher at Uppsala University, Fred Nyberg, believes on the contrary that legalization would be the wrong way to go.
The health risks are too great, according to him.
The damaging effects on the brain of use and increased risks for women exposed to violence are a couple of risks he points to.
In addition, the police officers he has had contact with have given the impression that legalization would not curb gang crime.
- Then they engage in other crimes instead, says Fred Nyberg, professor emeritus in biological addiction research.
Germany is one of the countries where legalization is now being investigated, in Uruguay and in Canada it has already been implemented.
Memetovic and Nyberg interpret the outcome of legalization in different countries completely differently.
Hear more arguments for and against legalization in the video above.