Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

Illicit drug use among high school students is on the rise in Sweden as well as in other countries. This fact has put high demand on the police, who are not only expected to reduce the availability of drugs but also to take part in the effort to affect the students' demand for drugs. The aim of this study was to analyse what impact students' demand for and perceived availability of illicit drugs in the seventh grade have on their attitudes towards and experience with drugs in the eighth grade. Moreover, the purpose was to investigate to what extent a specific police-led school-based drug prevention programme, the project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), affects students' attitudes and experiences regarding drugs.

As a part in an ongoing evaluation of the Swedish DARE programme (called VÅGA) about 1,800 students in 22 Swedish junior high schools on three occasions anonymously answered questions about their attitudes towards and experiences with drugs. Contextual analysis was used to estimate the significance of various student-level risk-factors (such as family bonding, school involvement, and peer activity) and school aggregated contextual factors.

The results show that students' curiosity and perceived availability of illicit drugs at the school-level have statistically significant effects on drug-related attitudes and experiences at the individual-student level. The attitudes towards and experiences with drugs in the eighth grade of students who participated in the DARE programme in the seventh grade were not different from those students who did not participate in the programme. A brief discussion of what measures the police should conduct in order to block the availability of drugs and what their role in schools should be are finally presented.

Group discussions were conducted, in five different occupational categories, in a medium-sized Swedish town. The occupational areas were the media, politics, business, culture and the civil service. An analysis is presented of how the interviewees expressed their alcohol habits in serious speech as compared to humourous speech. The participants' statements concerning their own alcohol consumption are related to expressions of what are called modulations in systemic functional linguistics. These form part of the ideational component of language, which concerns the way we communicate experience. Our choice of modulations demonstrates our attitude to the conditions that we describe regulate our ability to act. In serious speech, the speakers tend to value cautious drinking, setting sharp limits to how and when the use of alcohol is appropriate. As regards humourous speech, however, the situation is to a large extent the opposite: the interviewees picture themselves as under external constraints in connection to alcohol. The issues where we find humour is also where we find controversy in serious speech. The differences of opinion that arise, concerning everyday habits and the role model one represents as a parent, give rise to a number of jokes. The parts of serious discource that concern other people display a very different content, having to do with drinking too much, not being able to handle one's liquor consumption and not being permitted to drink alcohol – a content reflected in humourous form when the interviewees talk about themselves.

The article presents some Finnish results from a comparative survey (ESPAD) conducted among 15- to 16-year-old students in 1995 in 26 European countries. The focus is on the prevalence of the use of alcohol and other drugs, and on the relation between availability and use. In addition, the differences between metropolitan Helsinki and Finland as a whole are analysed. The Finnish results are compared with those of the neighbouring countries and the United Kingdom, where the prevalence of alcohol and substance use was among the highest in all ESPAD countries.

The lifetime prevalence of drunkenness was very high (77 %). There were no differences between boys and girls. Metropolitan Helsinki students did not differ from students living elsewhere in their alcohol use. Boys re ported that they had consumed more alcohol on their last drinking occasion than girls. Mixing alcohol with pills was more common among girls than boys. A quarter of all girls had at least sometimes mixed alcohol and pills. The prevalence of illegal substance use was low (5 %). In metropolitan Helsinki there were markedly more girls who had used alcohol and pills together (32 %) and taken tranquillisers or sedatives (14 %) than in the whole of Finland (25 % and 6 %, respectively). The reported use of marijuana and hashish was more common in metropolitan Helsinki (14 %) than on average (5 %).

The respondents found it very easy to get alcohol. The availability of a beverage was easier the wider its distribution network and the lower the minimum age for buying it. Of the other substances, inhalants (48 %) were assessed as the easiest to obtain, followed by tranquillisers and sedatives (21 %) and then by marijuana and hashish (14 %).

Finland, together with the United Kingdom and Denmark, belongs to those ESPAD countries where the prevalence of drunkenness is highest, whereas the prevalence of illegal drug use in Finland is very low. The prevalence of mixing alcohol and pills was on the same level in Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The object of the study is the drug scene and the administration of drug-related services in Rotterdam. The focus is on the relationship between drug users and the drug control system. The study draws upon observations and documents, and numerous interviews with civil servants, treatment staff, and drug users.

The Dutch view on the nature of the problem and appropriate ways to treat drug users is different from what is common elsewhere.

No legal sanctions relate to smoking of cannabis or to possession of small amounts, whereas large-scale trade, smuggling, and commercial cultivation are criminal activities. Neither is the use of hard drugs or possession for personal use criminalized. The core of the drug problem is seen to be on one hand the nuisance caused by those addicted hard drug users, and on the other hand the threat to the economy and politics of the country created by criminal drug organizations.

In dealing with drug-related nuisance the aim is harm reduction. The central idea is the normalization of the drug problem. This means that efforts are made to keep drug users in contact with society, instead of pushing them outside by pursuing repressive policies. The threshold to health and social services and to treatment is kept as low as possible. At the same time addicts are held responsible for their behavior, and they are required to follow the regulations of the institutions providing support and treatment.

Two remarkable aspects of the administration of drug-related affairs are a close co-operation between health authorities and the police, and an emphasis on Japanese-style neighborhood policing. The support and treatment services for drug users are run by private foundations that are fully financed by the government and the city. The extensive system of municipal services is supplemented by voluntary aid mainly provided by the churches and religious organizations.

The Dutch way of dealing with the drug problem derives from the traditions of governance and political culture in Dutch society. These are crystallized in three character masks: those of the pragmatic and prudent merchant, more concerned with practical problems than lofty ideals, the charitable and paternalistic priest, and the humble engineer who in his age-long fight against floods has learned that nature can be controlled but never fully tamed.

The purpose of the study is to clarify the status of alcohol as a form of symbolic communication in the process of erotic contact seeking among members of three social categories of the urban Norwegian population. In 1995, a field observation/depth interview study on alcohol and sexuality was undertaken among patrons of three clubs designed to attract people from different social categories in Oslo. 33 persons (25–52 years) visiting the three clubs were interviewed. The informants were classified on the basis of background and lifestyle as belonging to three different social categories: ‘the chosen ones‘, ‘the traditionals' and ‘the unconventionals’. In all three clubs it seemed to be common for men to offer to buy women drinks. The traditional gender role pattern was evident in all social categories. However, there were also differences among them in this respect. Men of the ‘the chosen ones' category might be described as acting like ‘gentlemen' when offering to buy drinks for women whom they did not know. In contrast, ‘traditional' men acted more like the traditional ‘provider‘, and ‘unconventional' men behaved more like the women's ‘pals’. There are thus consequences for both men's and women's motives for, and reactions to, offering somebody a drink.