Swedish council plans glass ‘box’ to contain drug users

Politicians in a Swedish town have proposed building a glass enclosure in the main square so that alcoholics and drug users can socialise without causing a public disturbance.

The motion tabled this week by two local politicians in Falkoping, central Sweden, argued that people on the fringes of society should be able to enjoy public places, but not at the expense of others. Hakan Andersson, a Moderate Party politician, told Swedish news website The Local that occasionally people drinking alcohol or using drugs in public “can get rambunctious, so people make detours to avoid them”.

“They want to be where other people are, which one can understand,” Mr Andersson said. “The proposal does talk about giving them a place where they can see other people.”

Despite his insistence that the box had everyone’s best interests at heart, others disagreed. “This just feels like an updated version of a leper colony,” local government official Conny Johansson told the tabloid Aftonbladet.