Iceland seems to be following the same path as Sweden and Finland in terms of looking to adopt a policy of decriminalization of drugs as a way forward to handle the drug menace that the country faces. In February 2021, RUV reported that 'The health minister’s parliamentary schedule for the new session of Alþingi includes a bill that would change Iceland’s drugs law. The bill proposes allowing the sale and possession of small quantities of currently-illegal drugs for personal use. The suggestion for a bill to change the law on drugs (65/1974), decriminalising small amounts for personal use, was today added to the Samráðsgátt public consultation website. Under the current law, the trade and possession of all quantities of all illegal drugs is a punishable crime. That will change if Svandís Svavarsdóttir’s bill passes into law.'
The exposure of younger and older generations to these drugs is a cause for worry leading to the formulation of new drug policies to try and address the issues in different ways, given the failure of traditional law enforcement and criminalization laws. What needs to be understood by the policy makers is that just as drug criminalization was flawed, decriminalization is also similarly flawed. Both these policy approaches to drugs make a very wrong assumption and build their policy on that assumption. The wrong assumption is that all drugs are equal and hence should be criminalized or decriminalized to the same extent. What this fails to see is that fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin, and that alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs and opioids are many times more potent than cannabis is. The most effective drug policy would be to legalize the most safe, time tested and healthy recreational drug, cannabis, so as to bring about harm reduction in society. Human society has always used intoxicants to get relief from the pain and suffering of life on earth, and to elevate its thinking to the abstract levels that humans claim only they are capable of. It is not only humans that use intoxicants but also other species such as elephants, chimpanzees, birds, insects, and so on. The fact that cannabis is used by other species is itself indication of the safety of the herb. It is the prohibition of cannabis that has created the demand for drugs like opium, and far worse, the synthetic drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl, besides the addiction to, and abuse of, synthetic pharmaceutical prescription drugs that much of society, especially the ruling upper classes, is addicted to and consumes daily claiming that it is medicine that is required to keep it healthy. The prohibition of cannabis was brought about precisely to create markets for these dangerous, harmful and addictive synthetic drugs, besides alcohol, tobacco and opium, by the upper classes and castes in human society so that they can get rich from the trade of these alternatives that moved in to take the place of cannabis.
Iceland, like other Scandinavian countries, has seen a recent spike in heroin addiction. This has led to an increase in the threat of using shared and contaminated needles as well as the likelihood of consuming poor quality and adulterated drugs. Along with heroin, other synthetic drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine, synthetic cannabinoids, prescription medication, novel psychotropic substances and opioids have entered the recreational drug list. Being highly addictive and often lethal in nature, these drugs have contributed to the ever-increasing number of persons taking up harmful drugs and ending up in exponentially increasing fatalities. Even though Icelandic society can be considered a wealthy elitist society that favors and affords the drugs of the elites - heroin, morphine and cocaine - it appears that the demand is so high that drugs typically associated with the lower classes, such as methamphetamine, are now making inroads into Iceland. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report 2020, says that methamphetamine from East Asia's laboratories mainly in Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia, now reach Iceland. Besides this, even though the report does not mention it, surely amphetamine type substances (ATS) from the Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon and Syria, synthetic cathinones from Russia and opioids from Iran and Afghanistan find their way into the country. The UNODC report states that 'While methamphetamine trafficking flows from East and South-East Asia to countries outside the subregion remain modest, some smuggling to destinations around the world was reported, mainly smuggling from Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar in 2018 or, when the period is extended to the past five years, mainly from China and Thailand. Destinations outside the subregion included countries in South Asia, the Near and Middle East (Saudi Arabia as well as Israel), Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), North America (the United States as well as Canada), Western Europe (notably Switzerland as well as Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Iceland), Eastern Europe (notably the Russian Federation) and Africa (notably South Africa) over the period 2014–2018'.
There have been reports of moves to establish various Drug Consumption Rooms or DCRs as a part of the decriminalization policy. DCRs will provide a safe environment for a drug consumer to consume a drug with facilities like needle exchange programs, medical supervision and consultation being provided. There could also be drug testing for adulteration to ensure that the consumer is not using contaminated drugs. Talking Drugs reported, around 2020, that 'Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the health minister, told Parliament on March 21 that her government would like to amend existing drug legislation so that DCRs could legally open and operate in the country. A DCR in Iceland, she said, would be a “legally protected environment where eighteen-year-olds and older can consume [illegal drugs] under the supervision of healthcare professionals. Where care is taken to ensure full hygiene, safety, and infection control.” DCRs prevent deadly overdoses from taking place, as healthcare professionals oversee people’s drug use and are therefore able to administer naloxone – a medication that reverses opioid overdoses – when necessary. Among the nine European countries operating DCRs, there has never been a fatal overdose within a facility.' DCRs are not permanent solutions to the drug problem, they are in fact firefighting measures that are as likely to encourage further drug abuse rather than address the root of the problem, which is humanity's natural affinity to intoxicants and mind-altering substances.
It does appear that significant numbers of Icelandic society are in favor of cannabis legalization. The numbers are dominated by men more than women. This, I attribute to the fact that women in Iceland are still part of a patriarchal society and averse to expressing themselves as much as men, besides being more influenced by the anti-cannabis propaganda. Grapevine reported in May 2021 that 'The major change in attitudes mostly come with cannabis and not other harder substances. Almost half of men want to legalize cannabis but only a quarter of women. Just over a third are in favour of legalizing cannabis and support decreases with age. The survey only took into account cannabis and not other drugs.' This opposition by women appears to be driven by the fact that anti-cannabis propaganda has mostly used the 'cannabis destroys the youth' myth, and the maternal instincts of Icelandic women have kicked in. The 'cannabis destroys the youth' myth is probably the second most effective argument used by anti-cannabis propagandists, after the 'cannabis causes insanity' myth. In India, until the 19th century, cannabis was completely unregulated and widely used across the population and the length and breadth of the country. The children did not all become mad or die as a result of it, otherwise I would not be here now writing this. What we see is that in a society where cannabis is completely unregulated, society self-regulates. Infants and children were given cannabis as medicine by the elders. Adolescents were prohibited by the elders from consuming cannabis, and it was only a few truant youngsters who experimented with cannabis, primarily driven by the curiosity that prohibited things have for the young mind. In general, it was typically after the age of 18 that young men in India started using cannabis until the 19th century. We see today, in places where cannabis has been legalized for adult recreational purposes, that cannabis legalization does not increase teenage consumption, instead it reduces it. This is because in a legalized society, age restrictions can be applied to cannabis sales from legal retail outlets similar to that of alcohol and tobacco. Most places with legalized adult recreational cannabis have an 18 or older age criteria while some have a 21 or older criteria. It is when cannabis remains illegal that the young are more easily able to access cannabis because the black market does not care about your age or your health, it is only interested in your money. Because of the black market's interest in your money more than your safety, a young person seeking cannabis will most likely be nudged towards the more dangerous synthetic drugs like heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, prescription medication, and methamphetamine, since these drugs are much more expensive and bring greater profits to the black market. Not only that, young people, once addicted to a synthetic drug and unable to pay for it, are ripe for recruitment into the criminal world where they themselves become peddlers, or even worse, willing accomplices in the commitment of violent crimes and financial crimes. It is precisely for these reasons why Canada and Germany legalizing cannabis for adult recreational purposes - to protect the young; to reduce crime; and to shrink the black market for drugs. So, if Icelandic women are really as concerned about their young as they are projecting themselves to be, then they would wholeheartedly support adult cannabis legalization. This will not only address the drug problems among the youth, it will also address the problems of alcohol and tobacco abuse which most people seem to think is not an issue since these are legal drugs sanctioned by the government. In fact, alcohol and tobacco - the legal drugs - kill many times more people every year than all the other 'drugs' combined. But then, to an adult who consumes alcohol, tobacco and synthetic prescription medicine everyday so as to be able to function normally, the idea of being labelled a drug addict who is setting a bad example to the youth is not something that can be easily digested. Cannabis is the scapegoat used by the elites since primarily it is the working classes, the indigenous communities, the poor and the minorities who are the main consumers of it. All this is the result of the decades of anti-cannabis propaganda by the forces opposed to cannabis legalization and the mindlessness with which society laps it up.
Besides the benefits of cannabis legalization for the young, it is highly beneficial for women themselves. For women in India until the 19th century - given the patriarchal nature of Indian society - it was usually in the mid-thirties or later that cannabis consumption became significant, since it was around this age that women had reached the mental maturity and courage to recognize that their being kept away from cannabis was more a way in which men exerted dominance over them rather than a way in which men protected them. Today, in places where cannabis has been legalized, women are among the fastest growing demographics - besides the elderly - who are embracing cannabis. The medical benefits of cannabis for women were documented by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission as early as in the 19th century and modern science is only confirming it and adding to the scientific evidence supporting the fact.
Since the prohibition of cannabis greatly benefits the medical industry where physicians get paid by pharmaceutical companies to market and prescribe their medicines, and also greatly benefits law enforcement since cannabis is the easiest 'drug' to detect and take legal action against, thus enabling law enforcement to boost its performance statistics and secure larger budgets, it is no surprise that the medical industry and law enforcement are among the biggest opponents of cannabis legalization worldwide. I am yet to come across a medical body in a country with cannabis prohibition that recommends cannabis legalization. This is also the case with law enforcement. It also helps these entities that most cannabis users who are targeted are from the lower classes of society and so incapable of fighting back against them. The upper classes and castes consume cannabis with impunity - besides all the opioids, alcohol, tobacco, synthetic legal and illegal drugs - and remain outside the criticism of the medical industry (who themselves belong to the upper classes and indulge in similar behavior) and action of law enforcement because these upper classes and caste hypocrites also publicly disclaim cannabis and have the means to elude legal action. So, it is no surprise that Grapevine reported in May 2021 that 'The National Commissioner of Police and the Icelandic Medical Association oppose a bill by the Minister of Health on the decriminalization of drug consumption, RÚV reports. According to the bill, which has majority public support, possession of narcotics and drugs in limited quantities will not be punishable. The National Commissioner of Police says they cannot support the bill in its current form because it offers different interpretations that may make it more difficult for the police to enforce the law. The Icelandic Medical Association believes that the way proposed in the bill will increase the “drug problems of Icelandic young people from what it is now”. The Red Cross celebrates the change.'
Iceland and other Scandinavian countries have not been as proactive as Denmark when it comes to cannabis, thus showing a more conservative and orthodox mindset. Not only does Denmark have a thriving cannabis culture in the Christiania locality in Copenhagen that is comparable to the cannabis culture in Amsterdam Netherlands, but it is also now one of the world's leading exporters of cannabis labelled as 'medical cannabis'. Medical cannabis is when the elites of a particular nation consume cannabis calling it medicine - packaged as a pharmaceutical drug - while at the same time imprisoning the lower classes of society who consume cannabis with the reasoning that the lower classes consume cannabis 'to get high'. Cannabis was, before it was prohibited, first and foremost, the herb of the poorest sections of society - the working classes, the indigenous communities, the poor and the minorities - who used it as intoxicant, medicine, entheogen and means of livelihood before it was appropriated by the upper classes and castes and banned for the lower classes and castes. Since cannabis prohibition is essentially blatant discrimination by the upper classes and castes against the lower classes and castes along religious, racial, ethnic, social and economic lines, as scientific evidence emerges regarding the benefits of cannabis and the hypocrisy and discrimination of cannabis prohibition, the elites have found a way to openly access the cannabis while at the same time show that they are not like the 'despicable' animal lower classes. That, folks, is what is called 'medical cannabis'. Denmark, Iceland, and other Scandinavian countries do not have climatic conditions suitable for large-scale outdoor cultivation of good quality cannabis as an agricultural crop. Denmark appears to have solved this problem by getting enough cannabis from both legal and illegal sources to meet not only the needs of its local population but also enough to export to Germany and other European countries. For Iceland, the aim should be to push for global cannabis legalization so that the nations best suited for cannabis cultivation - such as those in Asia, Africa and South America - can grow high quality cannabis at large scales making it available for import to Iceland. For now, out of the few nations with legalized cannabis - Uruguay, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Malta, Luxembourg - only South Africa, Uruguay and possibly Malta have the capabilities for large scale cannabis cultivation sufficient to meet local and export needs. Some Asian, African and South American governments have been surreptitiously entering into agreements with European nations to cultivate cannabis locally for export to Europe while denying their own local population the precious herb. All this goes under the label of 'medical cannabis'.
Growing scientific information is debunking all the myths that kept cannabis prohibited globally for nearly a century now. While Europe, North America and Oceania have embraced the latest scientific evidence regarding the benefits of cannabis, much of Asia and Africa still remains rooted in the myths and propaganda used by the colonizers to prohibit cannabis in the first place. Some of these myths are: cannabis causes insanity; cannabis is addictive and harmful; cannabis is more harmful than alcohol, opium and tobacco; cannabis is used by criminals and causes crime; cannabis is used by the lowest classes and castes of society; women who use cannabis are prostitutes; cannabis legalization will destroy the youth; and so on. Most of these myths were debunked more than 150 years ago itself, by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1894-95 set up by the British colonial rulers of India in order to prohibit cannabis and promote their alcohol, opium, tobacco and western medicine.
Like every nation of the world, Iceland too will surely be feeling the impact of global climate change caused by humanity's collective destruction of nature. To have even the smallest chance of reining in human-induced global warming, every single nation of the world must alter their current course of economic activities. Cannabis for industrial purposes can set a nation on the path to sustainable development and economics. It can negate, counter and offers a way out of the global crisis caused by the over-dependence on the fossil fuel industry and its allied industries: petrochemical-based synthetic pharmaceuticals, petrochemical-based chemical fertilizers and pesticides, petrochemical-based non-biodegradable plastics, fossil-fuel-based construction, petrochemical-based fabrics and textiles, petrochemical-based automobile parts, and so on. It is not just the harms of the fossil fuel industry that industrial cannabis will counter, it will also make various other industries environmentally sustainable such as: agriculture to grow hemp in place of cotton, rice and wheat; animal feed; wellness; tourism; food; beverages; cosmetics; paper; etc. Countries like France, the US and China have been cultivating industrial hemp on a war-footing in the last decade. It is surprising, considering that cannabis for industrial purposes was never prohibited in the 1961 Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs that all nations of the UN are signatory to. This shows the level of anti-cannabis propaganda and the power of those opposed to cannabis who form the wealthiest industries and people in the world today. The fact that no nation takes the trouble to see how much delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol(THC) a particular cannabis plant contains, and whether this is within the completely arbitrary and unscientific 0.3% THC levels set by policymakers, but, instead, destroys the cannabis plant on sight is one of the primary factors why industrial cannabis has almost vanished in the last century. This disappearance of industrial cannabis has coincided with the rise of the industries opposed to cannabis. It is these industries and the power structure that supports them - politicians, the medical industry, religious orthodoxy, cannabis prohibition groups, the media, law enforcement, drug enforcement, etc. - that have amplified the anti-cannabis rhetoric to such extents that even its use by industry is shunned due to the fear of exceeding the prescribed THC limits. Investing fully in industrial cannabis will replace unsustainable cotton, rice, wheat and tobacco crops. It will revolutionize the medical, agriculture, intoxicant, food, beverages, wellness, animal feed, tourism and other sectors besides directly addressing the problems of climate change and environmental destruction that have been caused by the industries opposed to cannabis. This will translate into jobs for the people, revenue for the state, environmental protection and economic sustainability. With just 24 out of 50 US states having legalized cannabis so far, the US already has a legal cannabis market with a projected $100 billion positive economic impact in 2025. Just like high-THC cannabis for medical and recreational purposes, even though Iceland may not be able to cultivate cannabis for industrial purposes at scales sufficient for its needs, it can surely import industrial cannabis from suitable sources and add it to its industrial applications to reduce its own, and hence the world's, carbon footprint.
Iceland needs to understand the medicinal , industrial and recreational value of cannabis and move to its complete legalization for adult recreational use so as to enable all natural varieties of cannabis, irrespective of levels of THC, to flourish. THC is the most medicinal compound in cannabis so, instead of destroying natural varieties of cannabis with high levels of THC, they must be protected and propagated. Like I said earlier, 'getting high' is not a sin. It is healthy and medicinal contrary to what the religious orthodoxy that gets high on religion - and the politicians who get high on power, and the businessmen who get high on money, and the medical and pharmaceutical industries that peddles getting high on synthetic drugs - would like you to believe. Cannabis legalization will provide Icelandic society with a safe, pleasurable and medicinal drug as an alternative to heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, prescription drugs, synthetic cannabinoids, alcohol and tobacco. Iceland needs to be up to date with the findings emerging from the places where cannabis legalization is taking place such as Uruguay, Canada, the US, Germany, South Africa, France, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc. If there is any delusion in Icelandic society that cannabis is a drug for the lower non-white classes and that Icelandic society is an elite white society, then such delusions need to be removed. On a larger scale, Iceland needs to support global cannabis legalization so that it can be made freely available to all nations opening up the way for worldwide cultivation and trade of cannabis between all countries enabling everyone including the poorest of the poor, the minorities, indigenous communities, the sick, the elderly, the youth and the women of all lands to access this most vital herb.
In December 2020, the UN voted to remove cannabis from its most restricted Schedule IV category of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. This was based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) which stated that the most serious side effect of cannabis consumption were 'laughter' and 'talkativeness'. Cannabis does, however, still remain in Schedule I, which is supposedly the least restrictive schedule but this means that the common man, who needs the cannabis the most, continues to not have access to it whereas the elite classes of society who brought about global cannabis prohibition can access it more easily than ever before. The move by the UN should be sufficient to bring about the recreational legalization of cannabis in every nation and an overhaul of national drug laws. But that did not happen since most nations remain firmly under the control of the ruling upper classes and castes and the entities opposed to cannabis. It must be noted that in most places where cannabis legalization has happened it took the efforts of the people who mobilized themselves through grassroots-level movements to bring about this change. Left to lawmakers, legalization would have been impossible, as the main interests of lawmakers concern the protection of the big industries opposed to cannabis. For something that truly benefits the people, the people themselves have had to make the change.
Related articles
Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article.
'The health minister’s parliamentary schedule for the new session of Alþingi includes a bill that would change Iceland’s drugs law. The bill proposes allowing the sale and possession of small quantities of currently-illegal drugs for personal use.
The suggestion for a bill to change the law on drugs (65/1974), decriminalising small amounts for personal use, was today added to the Samráðsgátt public consultation website. Under the current law, the trade and possession of all quantities of all illegal drugs is a punishable crime. That will change if Svandís Svavarsdóttir’s bill passes into law.'
'The National Commissioner of Police and the Icelandic Medical Association oppose a bill by the Minister of Health on the decriminalization of drug consumption, RÚV reports.
According to the bill, which has majority public support, possession of narcotics and drugs in limited quantities will not be punishable.
The National Commissioner of Police says they cannot support the bill in its current form because it offers different interpretations that may make it more difficult for the police to enforce the law.
The Icelandic Medical Association believes that the way proposed in the bill will increase the “drug problems of Icelandic young people from what it is now”.
The Red Cross celebrates the change.'
'The major change in attitudes mostly come with cannabis and not other harder substances. Almost half of men want to legalize cannabis but only a quarter of women.
Just over a third are in favour of legalizing cannabis and support decreases with age. The survey only took into account cannabis and not other drugs.'
'While methamphetamine trafficking flows from East and South-East Asia to countries outside the subregion remain modest, some smuggling to destinations around the world was reported, mainly smuggling from Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar in 2018 or, when the period is extended to the past five years, mainly from China and Thailand. Destinations outside the subregion included countries in South Asia, the Near and Middle East (Saudi Arabia as well as Israel), Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), North America (the United States as well as Canada), Western Europe (notably Switzerland as well as Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Iceland), Eastern Europe (notably the Russian Federation) and Africa (notably South Africa) over the period 2014–2018' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf
'Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the health minister, told Parliament on March 21 that her government would like to amend existing drug legislation so that DCRs could legally open and operate in the country.
A DCR in Iceland, she said, would be a “legally protected environment where eighteen-year-olds and older can consume [illegal drugs] under the supervision of healthcare professionals. Where care is taken to ensure full hygiene, safety, and infection control.”
DCRs prevent deadly overdoses from taking place, as healthcare professionals oversee people’s drug use and are therefore able to administer naloxone – a medication that reverses opioid overdoses – when necessary. Among the nine European countries operating DCRs, there has never been a fatal overdose within a facility.'
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