Reply to Arthur Gould: "Pollution rituals in Sweden: the pursuit of a drug-free society"

Sweden's policy on psychoactive drugs has the objective of creating a society free of drug misuse in which drug misuse remains socially unacceptable and marginalized conduct. A drug-free society is a vision that expresses an optimistic and positive view of people. The spread of drugs can be stopped and drug misuers can be rehabilitated through social measures that ensure that the drug problem is not reduced to a question of individual responsibility. Since it is difficult to rehabilitate people once they have started misusing drugs, society's preventive efforts must begin as early as possible. During periods in which public opinion is more rejective of drug misuse, recruitment of new misusers declines, which is a reasonable argument for maintaining a negative societal attitude towards the use of drugs. Sweden has a well functioning drug policy with strong public support that is an integral part of Sweden's general social policies, and there is no reason to abandon this policy.