ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 then focusses on the mood in Sweden prior to and during the introduction of Sweden’s contemporary prohibitionist drug laws. I argue that in-migration of considerable numbers of people, coupled with concern, blame, and stigma surrounding the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, resulted in a revival of historical concerns surrounding the identity and homogeneity of the Swedish nation state, galvanising moral panics relating to drug use, as well as what were/are perceived to be alien drugs and patterns of drug use. I emphasise that it was these panics which resulted in the criminalisation of the use of drugs.
