The city library in Jönköping has installed blue light in the toilets to prevent visitors from staying there for too long – among other things to make it more difficult to take drugs.
– It’s not very pleasant to be in there for a long time, says Filip Zezovski Lind, who is culture and library director in Jönköping.
Every month, around 30,000 people visit the city library in Jönköping, but not all of them are there to borrow books. It happens that people come there to look for a warm place during the winter months. But there have also been drug-related incidents in the library toilet, something Jönköpings-Posten reported on.
– We have had two incidents with drugs in the library in the last 12 months. Last year there was a man who tried to hide drugs in the toilet. It has also happened that people were there to try to sell drugs, Filip Zezovic Lind tells TV4 Nyheterna.
The blue light in the toilets was installed at the beginning of the year, with the aim of making it less pleasant to stay there for a longer period of time. It also makes it more difficult to see the veins if you are in the toilet to take drugs. The measure is part of a larger effort to create a safe existence for everyone who visits the library.
– The people who have nowhere to go are of course welcome here, as long as they follow the law, he continues.
Safe place for everyone
Overall, Filip Zezovic Lind thinks that Jönköping’s city library has been relatively spared from drug-related problems, but believes that it is still important that the library is a safe place for everyone – both for visitors and for the staff who work in the library.
Whether the blue light had any effect is difficult to determine, because they haven’t been sitting up for that long, says Filip Zezovic Lind. You can feel that it has become calmer, but it may also have to do with the fact that we are moving towards brighter and warmer times and that not as many people are looking indoors.
– Our hope is that you should go to the toilet for the sake of going to the toilet and not do anything other than what you are supposed to do there, he says.