Telemark District Court decided not to punish a 15-year-old girl for possession of hashish and the use of hashish, sleeping pills, and methamphetamines.

The court believed that there were special reasons, and thus no sentence was imposed. The girl was thus convicted but not punished, newspaper Rett24 writes.

“The court emphasized that the accused is in a particularly vulnerable situation, she is not more than 15 years old, lives under the care of the child welfare service, and has described a course of events that strongly indicates that she needs help rather than punishment,” district court judge Tamar Thorud wrote.

It was also emphasized that the case concerned modest quantities for own use. The prosecution proposed that the girl should be fined NOK 4,000.

The Supreme Court’s Appeals Committee recently revoked a heroin sentence since the perception of punishment for drug addicts has changed. Several court decisions in Norway have recently emphasized the changed perception of punishment as a tool in drug cases.

The issue of punishing drug addicts has been a very hot political topic in Norway in the last year. The government’s drug reform intended to decriminalize all drug use but did not get a majority in the Norwegian parliament (Storting). 

Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews

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