Drug User Organizations in the Nordic Countries—Local, National, and International Dimensions

Abstract

The article focuses on drug user organizations that represent and advocate for active “hard drug” users in the Nordic countries. It discusses the opportunities and challenges that these organizations face in their search for legitimacy and political influence. The comparative perspective points at similarities and differences in national contexts that both support and challenges the existence of drug user organizations, including drug policy, social welfare policy, trends in drug use, and organizational conditions. The article also discusses the importance of international network and transnational organizations that support drug user organizations.

Keywords :

• drug user organizations
• the Nordic countries
• legitimacy
• political influence
• international networks

THE AUTHORS

Vibeke Asmussen Frank, Ph.D., Anthropologist, is the Head of Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Denmark, and an Associate Professor in social science drug and alcohol research. Her research activities are mainly based on qualitative research, and usually either focus on or include drug users’ perspectives. She is involved in the management and conduction of several research projects. Current projects focus on prison-based drug user treatment, domestic cannabis cultivation, and implementation of drug policies in welfare institutions.

Jørgen Anker, Ph.D., Sociologist, is Manager at Rambøll Management Consulting, Copenhagen, Denmark, where he is responsible for a number of evaluations in the field of social exclusion. He is the Danish independent expert in social inclusion for the European Commission, and is also an external lecturer at the Department of Society and Globalization, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark. He has published various research articles on user organization among homeless people, drug users, and social assistance recipients.

Tuukka Tammi, Ph.D., Sociologist, works as a Research Manager at the A-Clinic Foundation, Helsinki, Finland. He has also acted as the Chair of the Finnish Society for Alcohol and Drug Research. His current research activities deal with drug policies, drug use and drug users, addiction treatment systems, and regulation of gambling.

Notes

1 The drop-in center is open from 10 am to 3 pm from Monday to Friday. People come to drink coffee, read newspaper, and to meet and talk with equal-minded people or to get advice from other drug users if they face a particular problem.

2 A council for socially excluded people was set up instead.

3 Interview with the President of the DDUU in January 2010.

4 The President of the DDUU is International Director of NAMA.

5 Interview with the President of the SDUU in January 2010.

6 www.larnettnorge.no, www.prolar.no, www.marborg.no.

7 www.emcdda.europa.eu/themes/harm-reduction.

8 In all the Nordic countries, citizens have the right to obtain social benefits based on different criteria. These criteria can be related to either unemployment or poor health.