REFUGEE

Two young men in Linköping in south-east Sweden have died after overdosing on the psychoactive drug methedrone, a substance that is not yet illegal in Sweden and can be bought on the internet, local news website Corren.se reports.
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The results of a post mortem examination were finalised last week following the deaths of the two young men during the summer.

"We have classified the deaths as methedrone poisoning," said Arne Eklund, acting manager at the National Board of Forensic Medicine's Linköping branch.

Police in the city are frustrated at the legal status of the drug. Having recently seized a large quantity of the drug, they may have no alternative but to return it to its owner.

"It's a nightmare," Chief Inspector Magnus Råsten told Corren.

The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs is currently in the process of preparing a draft proposal with the aim of classifying the drug as a narcotic. The government is expected to approve the proposal by the end of the year.

According to the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, methedrone, or bk-PMMA, is a new substance that has become more widely available in 2009.

The institute said the substance brings on a euphoric rush in users and could be viewed as a substitute for the related drug mephedrone, which was classified as a narcotic in May of this year.

A man who woke up in a Malmö hospital bed four weeks ago without any recollection of who he is or how he got there has turned to the Swedish public for help in determining his identity.
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“Who am I? Please, has anyone seen me before?” pleads the man in an interview set to air on TV3’s Efterlyst (‘Wanted’) television programme on Wednesday.

The man, who refers to himself as Sami Hussein, currently lives in a hotel located in Arlöv outside of Malmö in southern Sweden often used by the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket).

He speaks English well, but has no recollection of where he came from or how he came to Sweden.

“I don’t remember anything about my family, but there must be siblings, cousins, and all the rest, right? I can’t be alone in the world,” he told the Expressen newspaper.

“Sami” was found four weeks ago outside the Malmö police station, at which point he was taken to hospital for treatment of a mild stroke.

His first memory is waking up in the hospital bed.

Sami thinks he was born on March 3rd, 1949, but there is no record of anyone matching his description in either the police’s or Migration Board’s databases.

When he was found, Sami was wearing a black and white shirt and a dark red jacket.

While the last several weeks have been difficult for him, Sami is generally pleased with his time in Sweden so far – at least what he remembers of it.

“Everyone here in Sweden has been great! So helpful and friendly,” he told the newspaper.

“And it’s a very clean country.”

Sami hopes that someone will recognize him following his appearance on Efterlyst, which airs on Wednesday night at 9pm.

But until then, he is left to exercise his creativity when people ask him where he comes from.

“Sometimes I say that I come from Mars, or that I’m the man on the moon. Sometimes I say, ‘Where I come from is top secret’,” he told Expressen.