>>> Part 1 of 4...
From:
http://www.pantless.com/~pdxnorml/CU_39_Swedish_Experience_1972.html
"The Swedish Experience", Chapter 39 from The Consumers Union
Report on Licit & Illicit Drugs, by Edward M. Brecher and the
editors of Consumer Reports, Little, Brown and Company, Boston,
1972.
Nothing has changed since 1972 - the government, media and
medical profession are still incapable of informing the public
about the most basic factual information.
Chapter 39
The Swedish Experience
During the past few years, the American public has been warned of
what happened to amphetamines in Sweden. Sweden, we have been told,
was so blind to the hazards of the amphetamines that in 1965 these
drugs were made available free of charge on the Swedish health plan.
The results were 10,000 or 20,000 amphetamine "abusers" springing up
practically overnight in a small country of 7,000,000. Now (the
story goes) Sweden has banned amphetamines altogether, even on
prescription. The Nixon administration's 1969-1970 drug bill
proposed that the United States also prohibit amphetamine
prescriptions except for a few special conditions - thus profiting
from the Swedish experience.
The actual Swedish amphetamine experience, investigated there
for this Consumers Union Report, suggests a very different
perspective.
Amphetamine was first placed on sale in Sweden in 1938, three
years after its introduction into the practice of medicine in
the United States. [1]  The Swedes, however, were much more
prompt in recognizing the potential hazards of the drug; in
1939, though sales were still very small, they placed amphetamines
on the list of drugs available only on prescription - a step
that the United States did not take until 1954.
Swedish physicians apparently found the drug useful, for by
1942 they were prescribing it to about 3 percent of the
population. [2]
Some 6,000,000 doses were prescribed during the year. A
survey [3] indicated that most Swedish users were using
amphetamine sensibly and in moderation:
* 140,000 were occasional users, taking four amphetamine tablets
or fewer per year. No doubt, like Americans at the same time, they
used amphetamine on rare days when they had to work longer than
usual, or faced some extraordinary challenge, or woke up depressed
and out of sorts and needed something to "pull themselves together."
* 60,000 others were also occasional users, but with somewhat
greater frequency; their usage ranged from five times a year to
twice a month.
* 4,000 users took amphetamine only once a week or so, but often
took two or three tablets at a time - perhaps for a Saturday-night
"high."
* 3,000 users might be described as "borderline." Their frequency
of use varied from several times a week to daily - and they
sometimes took from five to ten tablets in a single day.
* 200 users - less than a tenth of one percent - could properly be
labeled "abusers." They took from ten to a hundred or more amphetamine
tablets a day, more or less regularly.
This spectrum of use suggests that amphetamines prescribed by
physicians are drugs with only a modest potential for misuse. The
figures may be contrasted with the estimated 10 to 12 percent of
alcohol users who become problem drinkers, and the estimated one
percent who become skid-row alcoholics.
The Swedish authorities, however, were not comforted by such
statistical comparisons. Warnings against the amphetamines were
circulated to all practicing physicians - and in 1944 the
prescribing of amphetamines was placed under much more rigid
legal restrictions.
The new restrictive measures, of course, engendered nationwide
publicity and once more alerted Swedes of all ages to the remarkable
effects of the amphetamines. Thus at a time when these drugs were
still known to only a minority in the United States, in Sweden they
had achieved the status of near-universal familiarity, as a result
of repressive measures.
The first effects of the tighter restrictions appeared to be
favorable. "Sales dropped for a few years by one-half," [4]
Professor Gunnar Inghe of the world-renowned Karolinska Institute
in Stockholm reports. But, as in the United States and other
countries where the authorities rely on drug repression, undesirable
side effects of the repressive measures made their appearance:
 >>> Continued to next message...
___
 X Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 X
--- Maximus 3.01
---------------