Status report: A Norwegian decriminalisation of use and possession of drugs?

Abstract

As the article about Germany in this number of Bergen Journal of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice illustrates, many countries are in process of changing their approaches to drug legislation, in particular with a view to decriminalise minor involvement in drugs, i.e. possession of minor quanta of drugs or use of it. So is the case for Norway, where a drug reform has been proposed by the Government. However, the political fate of this reform is currently troublesome. As the development is of interest also beyond Norway, we will in this comment provide our readers with an update on the situation with the drug reform. Section 2 of this report will briefly outline the current state of law. Afterwards, in section 3, the Norwegian reform proposal will be explained. This section will contain the justification for the drug reform and the proposal itself. Finally, in section 4 we will describe the political disagreement that has emerged, leaving the reform in turmoil.