[tallanvor]

I have no idea what crimes the Oslo police are actually focusing on, but drugs seem to be on the absolute bottom of their list. It would be one thing if they didn't have the resources to respond to every call about a witnessed drug deal, but they won't even send someone out to collect the drugs when they're told where the dealers are hiding them! At least they could get some of the drugs off the streets that way.

[mrborgen]

Actually, they do focus on this from time to time, busting a lot of dealers and drug addicts. This normally happens when the area they dealers/addicts occupy becomes too annoying for the public.

However, it doesn't solve anything. It just spreads the drug addicts and dealers around the city for a while, making drugs available everywhere instead of just around the "junkie area".

And then when the police stops busting people, a new "junkie area" appears.

Until it all repeats again..

[3838]

part of how that was tackled in holland was that if an addict was arrested they were offered a choice between being charged or going into treatment - and they may have also been banned from the junkie area (normally people are arrested if they violate this kind of ban)

[mrborgen]

That sounds like a very good practice. Much better than here. However, there aren't enough political will to do something like that here.. The bars for getting into treatment, especially with "replacement drugs" are way to high.

[3838]

some parts of the UK had problems with dealers scaring away litter collectors and road repair crews - they were hiding drugs in cracks in the road and empty coke cans in the street

end result was bad roads and lots of rubbish in those neighbourhoods