Customs seized record amounts of marijuana last year
Some 223 kilogrammes of marijuana were seized by customs officials in Norway last year, a record.
“The seizures indicate that smugglers are increasingly using postal and courier shipments as a smuggling method. The number of goods sent in the postal stream is increasing every year. This makes control very demanding for the Norwegian Customs. Nevertheless, we have uncovered more cannabis in postal and courier shipments in 2024 than we have ever done before,” customs director Øystein Børmer said.
Marijuana was primarily being smuggled into Norway from the United States and Canada.
A record amount of ketamine was also seized last year.
“There should be zero tolerance for drugs in Norway. To overcome this social problem, we need customs, police, teachers, and parents to join the effort,” Norway’s Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl said.
Energy prices in northern Norway skyrocket on Wednesday
A sudden cold spell has caused energy prices in central and southern Norway to skyrocket on Wednesday.
“We have had a rather sudden cold spell in the northern areas. It is cold up there today as well, but when the cold sets in for a couple of days you will get the full effect on the price,” power analyst Olav Botnen from Volt Power Analytics told energy news outlet Europower.
The prices in northern Norway will be at the highest level seen since December 2023 when they reach around 2.4 kroner per kilowatt hour on Wednesday.
The prices are expected to last until the weekend.
Norwegian prisons criticised
The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture has criticised Norway’s prisons after a visit in 2024.
The report from the visit was published on Tuesday. While the CPT praised motivated and skilled staff in the correctional service, it also said budget constraints affected conditions for prisoners and staff.
It also said there was a problematic management of suicide and self-harm risks. Furthermore, there were too few opportunities for prisoners to access the services they needed, and there was a need for more meaningful human contact for isolated prisoners.
Norway could slow interest rate cuts
Fewer interest rate cuts in the US could also mean fewer cuts in Norway, analysts have said.
“We believe that Norges Bank will signal next week that there will be an interest rate cut in March, but that it is very uncertain whether there will be any more interest rate cuts this year,” Elisabeth Holvik, chief economist at Sparebank 1 Gruppen, wrote in an analysis.
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