[2][3] Stoltenberg presented a harsh critique of Norwegian illegal drug politics and questioned whether the expert group of which she was a member really made any difference.
[2] During the period when she served on the government advisory panel, Stoltenberg made headlines when she advocated the legalization of cannabis.
At the age of 15, she went to Christiania in Denmark, a self-governed zone known for its liberal drug policies, where she remained for several months.
[7] At the age of 17, Stoltenberg attended a Bruce Springsteen concert, was pulled up on stage and danced together with the rock superstar.
[7] Stoltenberg started out doing television work in 1992 when she co-hosted the TV3 show På tide with Ole Paus.
[8] In 1994, she co-hosted Kvinnene på taket ("The Women On The Rooftop") together with Åsa Rytter Evensen and Anne Lise Hammer.
[8] Stoltenberg's drug addiction became known to the Norwegian public in October 2001, one week after her brother had resigned from his first cabinet.
[7] The revelation came when she spoke about it in the current affairs television program, Rikets tilstand, which broke previous records for number of viewers.
[10][11] Following the program in which she appeared together with her father, Thorvald Stoltenberg, she received more than 2,000 letters of support from viewers who in one way or another had experienced the problems associated with illegal drug abuse.
[12] Thorvald Stoltenberg has described his experiences with having a child who was an intravenous drug user in his 2001 memoirs, Det handler om mennesker ("It's about people")–one day being immersed in peace negotiations in the Balkans, the next wandering the streets of Oslo trying to find Nini.
[12] In the interview, Stoltenberg also tells of a boyfriend who subjected her to punishments, psychological terror and much fear, however, the heroin turned all of that into a feeling of freedom and made her perceive their relationship as simply wonderful, for a while.
[14] Stoltenberg received opioid agonist treatment using methadone for her heroin addiction during a two-year period.