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Swedish drug deaths have increased four-fold in the last nine years, the Swedish public television network Sveriges Television(SVT) reported on Wednesday. Citing coroners' figures, SVT put the number of drug overdose deaths at 99 in 1995, compared with 425 in 2002 and 413 last year. The city of Gothenburg was especially hard hit, with drug deaths jumping from one in 1995 to 53 last year.

"This is alarming and probably reflects a big increase of both heroin and mixed drug abuse, especially amongst younger persons, Peter Kranz of the Forensic Medicine Institute told the newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning.

The increase comes despite Sweden's well-deserved reputation as among the hardest of the hard-line when it comes to drug policy. Sweden remains committed to the utopian vision of a drug-free society, a policy most recently reiterated by a 2001 Expert Commission. "Sweden's restrictive policy on drugs must be sustained and reinforced," the commission concluded. "No arguments or facts suggest that lowering a society's guard against drug abuse and drug trafficking do anything to improve matters for individual users or society as a whole."

Hard drug users, of whom there are an estimated 30,000, might argue that not dying of drug overdose does improve matters for individual users. Per Sternbeck of the National Organization for Helping Drug Addicts told SVT deaths are up because the government has turned its back on users. "The reason is because addicts are refused care which is based on real needs and instead given care based on abstract ideas," he said. Many treatment centers are closed because local authorities will not pay for care, he added. "We ask, do you need to die just because you use drugs?"

But Swedish drug enforcement coordinator Bjorn Fries drew a different lesson from the numbers. "The developments show that efforts must be redoubled on a broad front," he said. Still, even Fries conceded that enforcement alone won't solve the problem. "The number of heavy drug abusers has increased and we must improve care for these people," he told SVT.

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