7th NordAN drug network meeting, May 20, 2025

Peter Moilanen, Narkotikapolitiskt Center, Sweden, What happened at the 68th Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Vienna

Peter sketched a very different CND from the upbeat, pro-legalisation gathering he saw in 2019. Fifty-five voting states convened in Vienna, surrounded by a number of civil-society side-events. The standout factor, he said, was the change in Washington. The new U.S. administration steered the agenda, asked delegates not to reference Ukraine in their national statements, and then voted “no” on all five draft resolutions - including one on prevention that Nordic NGOs had championed. The texts themselves were hardly radical; they mentioned Agenda 2030, climate and gender equality, issues the White House now opposes. Because the U.S. insisted on recorded votes, every resolution passed by majority rather than consensus - shattering a tradition that once gave the conventions moral authority.

Peter pointed out a key consequence: delegates kept asking UN agencies how they plan to keep offices running if U.S. funding is cut. In the corridors he sensed a mood change. Prevention-minded NGOs (his own included) felt “far more self-confident,” supported by the Oviedo declaration, now backed by roughly 3 000 NGOs and visible in packed side-events that drew UNODC officials and several ambassadors. By contrast, the groups that cheered Canada’s 2018 cannabis law sounded less sure of themselves - some conceded consumption is still rising and illegal supply persists.

Yet the legalisation lobby remains well funded. Peter cited Bobby Smyth’s new Addiction article tracing how Open Society Foundations has channelled about $81 million to 38 smaller NGOs that jointly host events, and has quietly donated to the UN Human Rights Council since 2016. That, he warned, lets sceptical states dismiss civil-society voices as “billionaire-backed.”

He and Stig-Erik pressed UN panels on Germany’s coming cannabis market and on placing prevention inside a human-rights frame, but received only cautious replies. Peter ended by highlighting a dilemma: fragmentation gives more space for prevention-focused NGOs, but it also allows countries like Canada, Uruguay, and Germany to try full legal regulation - raising the risk that surplus production could end up on the illegal market. “Something is changing,” he said. “What it adds up to is still an open question.”

Stig-Erik Sørheim, Actis, Norway, Norway’s stop-start drug reform

Stig-Erik recounted Norway’s bumpy road from punishment toward help. The Conservative cabinet’s 2019 bill would have decriminalised possession and use of all drugs; Parliament killed it but embraced its guiding idea that heavy users deserve assistance, not fines. Immediately afterwards the higher prosecuting authority ruled minor drug offences “not serious,” making phone searches, urine tests and the like disproportionate. With proof suddenly hard to obtain, police case numbers collapsed and courts softened sentences - yet only for people who could show a drug problem.

The incoming Labour-Centre government still wanted drug use to stay illegal, but recognised the legal limbo. In 2023 it set up the Drug Enforcement Commission to pin down three things: a workable test for “substance-use disorder,” clear personal-use quantities, and proportional policing tools. Reporting in June 2024, the Commission abandoned a strict medical definition and proposed the broader label “serious drug problems,” judged pragmatically by treatment history, housing status, criminal record and so on. It endorsed saliva tests as a non-intrusive way to confirm use and suggested slightly lower personal-use thresholds.

Those ideas fed the Prevention and Treatment Reform. Part 1 (Oct 2024) reorganised services; Part 2 (Apr 2025) rewrote the legal rules:

- Minor possession and use shift from the Penal Code to the Medicines Act - symbolically health-driven, but with the same penalties.

- Thresholds drop (e.g. heroin: 3 g → 1 g).

- People with “serious drug problems” will normally avoid punishment for minor offences.

- Under-18s will typically get a suspended sentence if they attend three meetings with a local Drug Advisory Board; police can also refer youth without laying charges.

- Saliva testing becomes lawful, restoring the police’s ability to prove consumption without blood or urine samples.

Stig-Erik likes most of the package but stressed that those advisory meetings must offer real help - housing, mental-health referrals, work support - rather than a one-off lecture. Politically, the picture is fluid: the Centre Party has quit the coalition, Labour runs a minority government, and the Conservatives - now tougher on youth crime - may win the 2025 election. Unless the big parties lock in a shared approach, he fears Norway could swing back and forth every electoral cycle.

Lauri Beekmann, NordAN, Estonia, Baltic snapshots and the role of missing infrastructure

Lauri stepped back from day-to-day legislation to ask why the Baltics lag behind the Nordics despite adopting many of the same laws. Policy is only part of the mix, he argued. Norway’s stellar road-safety record owes as much to four-lane highways and rescue capacity as to low drink-drive limits. By analogy, Baltic drug outcomes reflect under-funded services and a civil-society landscape skewed toward harm reduction, long supported by Soros-funded Open Society Foundations, with few prevention NGOs to balance the debate.

Latvia

The Health Ministry has drafted amendments that would decriminalise drug use by minors; possession and purchase remain offences.

On 8 May Parliament approved mandatory treatment for under-18s with diagnosed addiction. Hospitals may restrict movement for 72 hours and must seek court approval; three facilities launch 1 July 2025.

On 13 May the State Police said they could accept medical cannabis if strictly doctor-supervised, a shift driven by the Progressive Party.

Lithuania

Two cannabis-decriminalisation bills await a Justice Ministry opinion - one ties exemption to treatment, the other would replace prosecution with warnings.

Parliament has kept the power to list or ban new narcotics with the Health Minister, arguing a speedy response to new synthetics outweighs transparency concerns.

From 1 July property owners who knowingly allow drug use face €100–700 fines; repeat cases may trigger rehab orders.

Lithuania secured another term on the UN CND, out-polling Russia and Belarus.

Estonia

February’s Good Samaritan agreement promises no charges for anyone seeking help during an overdose, aiming to cut fentanyl deaths.

Austerity has axed the quarterly national wastewater-drug survey; only one 24-hour sample will be taken in 2025, alarming epidemiologists, though an EU directive may soon force fuller monitoring.

Across all three countries Lauri sees big legislative ambition but struggling public budgets. Without sustained investment in infrastructure - roads, hospitals, data systems - and a broader NGO ecosystem that covers prevention as well as harm reduction, the Baltics may keep rewriting laws yet fall short of Nordic outcomes.