This week, the police union’s magazine Polistidningen published three articles with serious criticism of the Swedish Narcotics Police Association (SNPF). To sum up, it is about a textbook on narcotics that is used in all Swedish police training. It is sold directly on the association’s website and when Polistidningen asked experts in the field, it got a very poor rating for the book. The criticism is that the symptoms and signs of various drugs are unscientific and that the information in the book is outdated. The association’s chairman, Lennart Karlsson, rejects the criticism and says that they will go through the claims and perhaps make an update. The last update was made as recently as 2021.
Another criticism of the political police is the fact that the sister association in Norway last year removed police from their association name. This is because an investigation from the Norwegian Ministry of Justice has determined that there has been a confusion of roles. In other words, police officers who have worked for the association, against narcotics in their spare time, used police uniforms and the police authority’s contact information to push their agenda. Something that had an impact on when Norway was about to decriminalize in 2021, but their lobbying helped to avert the reform.
The Norwegian Narcotics Police Association (NNPF) was changed to the Norwegian Narcotics Prevention Association (NNF).
The articles mention social media activists who are angry and protesting wildly. In Norway, the hashtag #narkotwitter on X/twitter has turned into a counterforce that counteracts the Norwegian association. This loosely composed group of activists and debaters has long criticized the political police and was finally right. Now the same seems to be happening in Sweden and there the phenomenon is called #knarktwitter.
Last but not least, this whole story is about how the SNPF is financially dependent on the police authority and thus becomes something of a political branch of the police. Lennart Karlsson believes that all of this does not apply in Sweden because they are not political in the same way as their Norwegian counterparts. But according to Polistidningen it is clear that critics do not agree. There is also plenty of evidence in social media that shows with the utmost clarity how Karlsson and the SNPF have acted politically many times over the years.