Drug abu­se in Lon­gye­ar­by­en

In autumn last year the poli­ce caught 11 young peop­le in Lon­gye­ar­by­en with drugs. 10 of them have by now been sen­ten­ced to fines or pri­son up to 60 days (part­ly sus­pen­ded). Next to owning and sel­ling amounts of up to 100 g of can­na­bis, one per­son was also char­ged for breaching laws regu­la­ting fire­arms becau­se of impro­per sto­rage. Two per­sons were expel­led from Spits­ber­gen for up to 4 years. The local news­pa­per Sval­bard­pos­ten found out last year (after the drug raz­zia) in an inter­net poll that 911 out of 1060 rea­ders are in favor of expel­ling drug users and dea­lers from Spits­ber­gen.

The cri­mi­na­li­ty level is com­pa­ra­tively minor and main­ly direc­ted at covering own deman­ds, but has to be seen in the con­text of a small, iso­la­ted town with many young inha­bi­tants. The can­na­bis was smug­gled from Nor­way to Lon­gye­ar­by­en by mail.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen, Sval­bard­pos­ten (1112)

By the way, my new book is in print and it can now be orde­red 🙂 it is a pho­to book with the tit­le “Nor­we­gens ark­ti­scher Nor­den (1): Spitz­ber­gen – vom Polar­licht bis zur Mit­ter­nachts­son­ne”, with Ger­man text Click here for fur­ther details!