If it is a question of what "works", the example of Sweden is instructive. In a way similar to its dealings with prostitution, Sweden flirted with a liberal drug regime in the second half of the 1960s and then progressively tightened its laws, criminalizing illicit drug use and providing early intervention and coercive treatment. The vision has been the ambitious one of a drug free society. The message: Don’t.
The result, according to the UN’s 2007 report, has been notable success. In 2006, 6 percent of students aged 15-16 had used drugs, down from 15 percent in 1971. Lifetime prevalence of drug use for that age group was also 6 percent, compared with 22 percent for Europe. Overall, drug use had declined in Sweden at a time when it was increasing in Europe and the country had low levels of injecting drug-use-related HIV/AIDS infections.
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