Comments on “Harm Reduction and Decriminalization in the United States: A Personal Perspective,” by Robert L. DuPont

Abstract

legal drug use found in the Netherlands would spread to their own country. Now that Sweden and Finland are members of EU, they want that organization to introduce a strong prohibition policy in the drug field. The attitudes among the Nordic people are based on a long historical tradition. The temperence movement in the 19th century had a significant effect on Nordic culture. Puritanistic values were reinfoced. The Nordic temperance movement not only battled against the use of alcohol but also stressed older values. In fact, the Nordic temperence became the basis for the worker’s movement in these countries. This had a much more profound influence on society than in most other European countries. The reason was that the temperence and the worker’s movement could base their ideas on traditional values of a farming society which was based on common decision-making among independent farmers, and this culture had not been significantly affected by the feudalistic systems which had existed in middle Europe.