“We know that we have the largest consumption in the affluent areas.

Djursholm, Danderyd - this is where you have the largest consumption ", said Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (S) when he in 2019 presented a new initiative against drug crime and" It is largely the upper class that keeps the drug trade in the metropolitan areas.

It is covered. ”, Wrote Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson (S) shortly afterwards.

Although the statistics already then indicated that there was no basis for the allegations, there were few facts about the matter.

But now CAN has delved deeply into the question of how drug use differs between different socio-economic groups.

Conclusion: There is no support for an individual socio-economic group to contribute specifically to the demand for drugs in Sweden.

- No, you can not say that any group accounts for a majority of demand.

And it should also be said that the higher socio-economic group is relatively low, says Mats Ramstedt, research manager at CAN.

Small differences

If any group stands out, it is rather the one where people with the lowest education, employment and income are found, and where drug use according to the report is more common compared to groups with higher income and education.

But the differences are small and if you compare groups with different levels of education, for example, the differences are only significant when it comes to the use of illegal drug-classified drugs, where the group with the lowest education stands out.

If you look instead at other illegal drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, hallucinogens, amphetamines and opioids, there is no significant difference in use between the groups.

More problematic users further down

But if you start from income, the differences become clearer.

The use was clearly more common among the 20 percent who earned the least, compared to the rest of the groups.

It also turned out that drug use was more frequent among those with the lowest incomes.

For cannabis, by far Sweden's most common illegal drug, the group with the lowest income accounted for almost half of all uses.

A similar pattern was also seen for other drugs, which most likely means that there are more problematic users in that group compared to those with higher income and education.   

- This was the clearest result, that people in the lowest group use drugs more often than in other groups, says Mats Ramstedt.