Health Minister Still Planning To Submit Bill On Decriminalising Drugs For Personal Consumption

Although this was not included in the announced joint platform of the new government, page 13 of the parliamentary matters agenda shows that Minister of Health Willum Þór Þorsson is planning to introduce a bill that would make changes to existing laws, and decriminalise drugs in quantities considered for personal consumption.

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The bill has a storied history beginning at least in 2019, and was led by Pirate Party MP Halldóra Mogensen and eight other MPs from the Pirates, the Social Democrats, the Left-Greens (the party which leads the government), the Reform Party and the People’s Party.

The bill specifically aims to decriminalise buying, receiving or possessing drugs, provided they are beneath a volume considered to be solely for personal use. There was considerable support from the bill across the political spectrum and in numerous sectors, with even the director of prisons in Iceland voicing support for it.

The bill, after stranding in the Welfare Committee last June, is due to be re-introduced to Parliament next month. If passed, it will be up to a workgroup under the auspices of the Ministry of Health to determine which drugs this would apply to, and what would count as a personal consumption quantity thereof.