Several responses. The Bishop report itself answers this with various graphs and charts. In the 90s there was a slight increase in drug use, but that went into decline again the following decade. And even in the 90s, Sweden was still leading almost every other Western nation in this battle. But let me cite the UN again:

UN drugs chief praises Swedish drug control model
STOCKHOLM, 7 September (UNODC) – The Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said on Thursday that Sweden’s successful drug control policies were a model which other countries could learn much from.
Launching a UNODC report entitled Sweden’s Successful Drug Policy: A Review of the Evidence, he said drug use in Sweden was just a third of the European average while spending on drug control was three times the EU average.
“Societies have the drug problem that they deserve,” Mr Costa said. “In Sweden’s case, the commitment to prevention, law enforcement, demand reduction and treatment over the past thirty years has made a significant difference.”
Mr. Costa said those who doubted the effectiveness of drug control should look at Sweden’s experience, which was useful not only for showing that drug control is possible, but how and why.
The report shows that amphetamine use in Sweden was high in the 1950s when such stimulants were readily available. Overall drug use rose in the second half of the 1960s during a period of rather liberal drug policies but declined strongly in the 1970s and the 1980s due to progressively tightening drug control. Drug use rose again in the 1990s due to budget cuts, unemployment and growing drug supplies but has followed a clear downward trend since 2001 as a result of a National Action Plan, the establishment of a National Drug Coordinator and improved funding.
Mr Costa praised the culture of drug abuse prevention and treatment in Sweden. “Long-term and cohesive policies, backed up by sufficient funding and the support of civil society, have proven vital for success,” he said.
He stressed the strong correlation between the Swedish Government’s special efforts to target cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants and an overall reduction in drug use. “The lessons of Sweden’s drug control history should be learned by others,” said Mr. Costa.
Sweden’s Minister for Public Health and Social Services, Morgan Johansson, said: “I am very proud that the report commends Sweden as a successful example. But this doesn’t mean that we have won the fight against drugs. The work must continue, every day. Preventive measures are necessary. We also have to improve rehabilitation for people with drug abuse problems.”
The UNODC Executive Director praised Sweden’s efforts to promote international drug control and thanked the country for its support for UNODC. “When it comes to drug control, Sweden practises what it preaches. It is a driving force in ensuring implementation of international drug control targets.”

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/press_release_2006-09-06.html

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

I have raised the Swedish model example before to those on the left and they hold it up as a paradigm example of the advantages of using social means to treat addicts and not criminalising. The UN report is often cited:

“In an evaluation of the criminal justice system measures, the National Council for Crime Prevention of Sweden concluded that based on available information on trends in drug misuse there are no clear indications that criminalization and an increased severity of punishment has had a deterrent effect on the drug habits of young people or that new recruitment to drug misuse has been halted. On the contrary, the Council found that drug experimentation among young people, increased throughout the 1990s, a trend, which was similar in Sweden to that in other countries.”

Do you have a response to this?

Damien Spillane

Students at a secondary school in Victoria received their Harm Minimisation talk in a Year 9 class. One student asks me curiously after the talk, if I thought that students should be encouraged to take drugs.

Of course I answered no to this. To which she added, the speaker said that they (the students) will in the future be taking drugs and when they (the students) do, they can experience the benefits of harm minimisation.

The student claimed that the speaker said that the students ‘needed’ to try drugs to understand it all, and the student curiously questioned me if I agreed.

I answered with a simple question. Would you need to drink-drive and have a car accident to realize that drink-driving was dangerous?

The student smiled, understanding my response.

I totally object to the brainwashing of innocent, vulnerable impressionable teenagers by foolish adults. Don’t pass your mistakes on to your children.

Teresa Binder

A Chinese proverb concerning alcoholism says that one drink is too many and ten thousand drinks are not enough. That applies to all addictions, obsessions and compulsions.

To encourage our young into believing that unless they indulge in sex and drugs, then life is not worth the living or that their arms and legs will drop off is designed to reset the default settings of their brains so that they become hopelessly enslaved by their emotions, instincts and lower natures. The mistaken notion that the most important thing in society is to make tolerance the one virtue that overrides all others is to encourage our children into an early grave. If it is a stark choice between the lives of our children and liberal politicians, then we ought to chuck the latter over board – complete with mill stones around their necks.

David Skinner, UK

I remember a while back that Channel Seven was attacked for revealing the club to which some drug users belonged. While Seven did the wrong thing in how they got the information, the issue that people were taking drugs was largely ignored. The AFL drug policy is not working. Players are still taking drugs. The AFL should put the health and safety of the players above the players’ careers, but it doesn’t. If the AFL fails to change its position who knows how many more former or even current players will die.

Matthew Mulvaney