A non-profit organisation called Drogfritt (roughly translated to “no drugs”) is regularly hired by 65 (out of 290) Swedish communes, for lecturing about narcotics in Swedish public schools. Most of the employees of the organisation are Scientologists and their lectures are based on material from Narconon, a well known Scientological subsidiary. A representative from Drogfritt says he on average delivers “250-300 lectures per year” in Swedish public schools.
The target audience is children aged 14-15 years and many of the school officials seem unaware of the link between Drogfritt and Scientology.
The contents of the lectures are now criticized by internal school inspectors and an associate professor at the University of Malmö for being very misleading and factually incorrect.
The anthroposophical movement in Sweden has its stronghold in the town of Järna, south of Stockholm. This is also the location of Vidarkliniken, a hospital founded in 1985 based on anthroposophical values and ideas. Since 1993 Vidarkliniken has a regulatory exception renewed year after year, which means they have permission to use anthroposophical remedies along side conventional, science based treatments.
After years of criticism from EU and the Swedish medical community, the Swedish government finally decided on 30 June 2016 to phase out the exception over a period of five years. Since then Vidarkliniken has lost their contracts with two local county councils and received bad press in Swedish media.
Science and Popular Enlightenment, aka the Swedish Skeptics Association
Countries of operation:
SwedenFounded: 1982 | Web page:
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more info...
This June/July, American alternative cancer healer Brian Clement is touring Europe to give talks about how cancer can be cured with diet and various other things. His venue has cancelled the booking in Stockholm after a major Swedish news paper today posted an article: “Allegedly fraudulent health speaker stopped”.
False ideas both historically and today, have in many cases led to disastrous consequences. To achieve a deeper knowledge of how Swedes today relate to these questions, VoF (aka the Swedish Skeptic Association) commissioned an opinion poll in the early summer of 2015. This survey covers a wide range of issues that are of interest from a skeptical point of view.
A PDF document (in English) can be downloaded from VoF’s web site here: The VoF-study 2015
