FINLAND: COMMISSION RECOMMENDS CHANGES IN DRUG EDUCATION, OPPOSES
WIDESPREAD TESTING

Report Marks Shift Toward Harm Reduction Approach

A special commission studying ways of preventing drug use by young people,
which submitted its report on Monday, is calling for changes in Finnish
drug education.

The commission, chaired by Kalevi Kivisto, Director General at Finland's
Ministry of Education, notes that young people become drug users either as
part of a spiral of marginalisation and impoverishment, or through a youth
culture that emphasises maximising good feelings. As drug use begins in
different ways, and causes different kinds of problems for different
people, the commission finds that different kinds of drug education are needed.

The commission takes a negative view of drug testing programmes. According
to the group, questions of reliability, privacy issues, and what
consequences a positive result would have need to be clarified, and
legislation needs to be enacted before testing programmes are introduced.
In the commission's view, tests could be used only as a means of supporting
drug treatment and rehabilitation, and even then, only with the consent of
the person being tested.

The report says that drug education should be businesslike, realistic, and
believable. Different drugs need to be discussed in different ways,
according to their relative harmfulness and addictive properties.

"The attitude of many young people toward drug education is similar to how
the internal world of the East European dictatorships was seen before the
collapse", said Osmo Soininvaara (Green) the Minister of Social Services,
who accepted the report.

"Drug education does not seem to have reached its target group, and there
are more reasons for this than just bad luck. We need to think how we can
prevent illegal experimentation and accidental death. Experimentation
cannot be prevented, but we need to block the way to abuse", said Osmo
Soininvaara. He also noted that Finnish drug policy could actually have
encouraged the transition from experimentation to abuse.

More important than drug education is that children and young people get
support for their development. In the commission's view, the formation of a
child's social skills and self-control require the help of the home,
school, and youth workers.

According to the commission's chairman, Kalevi Kivisto, young people need
appreciation and encouragement. Labelling young people as problem cases
encourages marginalisation. He feels that promoting a young person's skills
of self-control is a better way of preventing problems than punishment.

The commission also wants to go beyond illegal drugs to all intoxicants. In
Finland, young people tend to start using alcohol in large amounts at an
exceptionally early age, which causes more problems than illegal drugs from
a medical point of view. Whereas one in ten Finnish 15-year-olds have used
an illegal drug, three out of four have gotten drunk.

The commission points out that it should be kept in mind that the drug
industry is one of the largest industries in the world with links to crime,
and which promotes poverty and inequality.

The Commission proposes a three-way approach to drug education:

Drug abuse prevention for the population at large should have as its goal
the strengthening of self-control, while those at risk should be told of
the dangers, and early intervention should be provided for users. For those
with a real drug problem, the commission recommends harm reduction through
treatment and rehabilitation.

The commission makes a total of 49 recommendations for the three different
levels of approach. These include increased support for after school
activities, the more rapid processing of cases involving juvenile crime,
and the establishment of low-threshold help for groups at risk.

The commission's recommendations would push Finnish drug policy in the
direction of the idea of harm reduction. A few years ago such an approach
was generally dismissed as "surrender" to the drug problem. However, the
unexpected surge in HIV and hepatitis-C infections among intravenous drug
users has led many Finnish decision makers to consider different approaches.