Ahead of graduation several final year students had put up tents in an area just outside of Skellefteå.
There are a few days left before graduation. In a field young people from different classes in school have erected their tents and it is evident that there will be a party tonight. But that is not why we are here.
We want to talk to young people about their attitudes towards drugs. According to the police, young people both use and sell narcotics in Skellefteå. Those narcotics can in the end be traced back to gangs down south. For example, the police have found connections to the Foxtrot and Dalen networks.
Ahead of graduation several final year students had put up tents in an area just outside of Skellefteå.
Neither of the young people we talk to say that they do drugs but many of them know of someone who does.
– I remember when I was a few years younger, I remember thinking ”it’s not so bad as long as you do it with moderation”. But it just goes downward, it’s impossible to keep a steady level, says Jeffrey Lundgren.
”There are lots of people who take drugs”
Some of the people we talk to say that there are a lot of vapes where the manufacturers perhaps change one chemical that makes the substance legal, for a while.
– Then they become illegal but people keep buying and selling it on. They’re fairly easy to hide as well, says Noel Stenlinden before adding:
– When you don’t know exactly what’s in them they also become more dangerous.
Noel Stenlinden and Jeffrey Lundgren have primarily heard of narcotic-classified e-cigarettes, so-called vapes.
Noel Stenlinden and Jeffrey Lundgren.
Jeffrey and Noel believe that they would have been able to get hold of drugs if they had wanted to.
– It looks easy, it seems to be easy considering that I know one or more people who do it or have done it, Noel says.
In the last few months the police has spent quite some resources on spreading information about gang criminality and the connection to drug sales. Among other things, they have invited legal guardians to different information meetings.
Maria Hedman, local police officer in Skellefteå, held a lecture on gang criminality.
In the annual ANDTS survey 2024, a total of 41 pupils in year two of upper secondary school stated that they had tried drugs.
The police’s perception is that the distance has diminished: it is no longer strange for an average person to be familiar with the world of crime.
Lowisa Zaatar, 18, was one of the visitors at the meeting and she agrees with that conclusion.
– I’ve seen friends and others be forced to do things they really didn’t want to do. There has been violence in class, in senior school for example there was a boy who got dragged into the woods and beaten up. He needed emergency medical care after that.
She adds:
– As I understand it he was supposed to sell a thing to someone older but he didn’t do it.
Lowisa Zaatar and her mother Malin Zaatar were two of many participating in the police meeting at the campus area in Skellefteå.
In the latest annual survey about drug habits, 41 pupils in the second grade of upper secondary school said that they had tried drugs. The absolute majority is thereby stating that they have not taken drugs. But among the youths at the tent area outside of town, the picture is still that drug use is common.
– There are loads of people you know who have tested or taken something. You can look almost anywhere, says Wilma Hedman Karvonen.
Her friend Mirelle Törnberg says that cannabis is most common but they think it is easy to get hold of other things as well.
– It’s probably what people are open to the first time they try, she says about cannabis specifically.
– It’s actually tragic that it’s so easy because it’s really dangerous and easy to become addicted. But unfortunately it’s very easy to get hold of, says Wilma.
Mirelle Törnberg and Wilma Hedman Karvonen say that it is very easy to get hold of drugs for those who want to. Before you perhaps had to meet a dealer – now everything is in your phone.
Both she and Mirelle Törnberg know how they would have done it if they had wanted to get hold of drugs.
– It’s very easy, Mirelle says.
– It’s super easy, Wilma concludes.
On snapchat there are people who post what they have to sell, they say.
– They can post it on a story ”I have this, message me if you want to buy”, Wilma says and adds:
– There are lots of people who could get you some if you were to message.
Folke Andersson and Theo Elingstam. Folke was added by an unknown person on the app snapchat. It turned out that the person was selling drugs.
Folke Andersson says that he a couple of years ago was added by a person on snapchat who he did not know.
– They posted a story saying that there are drugs to buy. So I’m thinking that if you want to get hold of drugs there are simple ways, which you haven’t thought about or planned yourself.
What do you think about it being that easy if you want to?
– It's frightening. As young as I was, 15-16, you can’t consume alcohol or drive a car but I can get hold of serious drugs. It was an eye-opener.