Vedum believes that youth crime is driven by drugs

Vedum says to Klassekampen that he wants to give the police more powers and believes that the state must be able to lock children up. He believes the main reason for the increase in crime committed by young people is the sale of illegal drugs.

– I believe that it is drugs, and the amount of money to be made from them, that is the main driver behind youth crime, says the center party leader.

Vacuum

He is very critical of the fact that the bourgeois government at the time proposed to decriminalize smaller user doses of drugs. Vedum believes that a vacuum has arisen afterwards, where it is not clear to the police what means of power they have and where young people think that drug use is not that dangerous.

– I think the Right and the Left must look at themselves in the mirror. I think what they are doing in this field is very unwise, he says.

He does not want to lower the criminal minimum age, but says the public must have more opportunities to detain offenders under the age of 15.

– Putting a 13-year-old in prison will make him very vulnerable to being recruited into further crime. But you have to be able to hold back a 13-year-old who is terrorizing society, also physically, says Vedum.

– Gift package for the criminals

Venstre’s Ingvild Thorsvik reacts strongly to Vedum’s statements. She says she becomes concerned if Norway has a finance minister and a government that believes that punishment of and increased use of coercive drugs against young people and others who struggle with drug addiction will solve the challenges of organized crime.

– It will be a gift package for the criminal gangs with a government that uses all its efforts to implement a harmful drug policy, rather than policies that stifle organized criminal activity, she says.

– I expect action behind words from the finance minister, if he actually believes that the confiscation figures must rise.