| Tittel: | Punishment as help? Rationalizing punishment in the debate on the Norwegian drug policy reform | | Ansvar: | Tobias Kammersgaard | | Forfatter: | Kammersgaard, Tobias  | | Materialtype: | Artikkel - elektronisk | | Signatur: | Nordic Journal of Criminology | | Utgitt: | Oslo : Universitetsforlaget, 2025 | | Omfang: | S. 18 | | ISBN/ISSN: | 2578-9821 | | Serie: | Nordic Journal of Criminology ; 1/Volume 27 | | Emneord: | Narkotika / Rusmidler / Straff / Strafferett / Vitenskapelig publikasjon | | Note: | Open access. Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) | | Innhold: | Abstract
In 2021, a proposal to decriminalize personal possession of illicit drugs was voted down in the Norwegian parliament after having been underway for years and widely debated. The debate of this proposal constitutes a particularly informative case for exploring discourses around the use of punishment in contemporary drug policy making. As the title of the reform proposal – “From Punishment to Help” – indicates, it was the use and understanding of punishment in drug policy that was dividing those for and against the reform. In this paper, the arguments mobilized against decriminalizing will be explored based on an analysis of more than 100 hearing statements submitted to the government by different stakeholders. The analysis of these revealed a strong counter-discourse where punishment was positioned as a form of ‘help’ to aid, especially young people, in the ceasing or avoidance of illicit drug use. Drawing on this analysis, it is explored how those opposing decriminalization of drug possession foregrounded the ‘benevolent’ rather than the ‘punitive’ aspects of punishment, and how this understanding of punishment served to rationalize the continued use of criminal sanctions for personal possession of illicit drugs.
Keywords: decriminalization, drug policy, drugs, Norway punishment | | Del av verk: | Nordic Journal of Criminology Volume 27 no 1 |
|
|