Finland’s debate on cannabis use has received a new boost after the Green League, one of the parties in the ruling government coalition, supported a proposal to work towards legalising the drug. The party calls the current system “prohibition”.
The Green League, the party of Finland”s interior minister, Maria Ohisalo, voted on the issue during a virtual conference earlier this month and the motion was accepted, albeit with the smallest possible margin: 183 votes to 181.
“We will indeed need to do quite some convincing still within our own party,” admitted the Green League’s Helsinki city council member Coel Thomas, who was one of the instigators of the proposal.
The small margin at the Green League’s conference actually reflects how contentious legalisation (or even just decriminalisation) of cannabis use remains for now in Finland: among its 5.5 million inhabitants, only a minority supported the idea in the last survey on the topic in 2018.
Currently, cannabis use is illegal in Finland.
“It is quite a harsh system,” says drug policy professor Pekka Hakkarainen, from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare in a phone interview with Euronews.
“If you get caught just once, you will be registered with a police information system for five to 10 years.
“This can lead to far-reaching consequences for schoolwork, a job search or getting a security clearance needed for particular jobs – in education for example.”
In more than 60 sectors, people who have been convicted of only…
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Finland’s debate on cannabis use has received a new boost after the Green League, one of the parties in the ruling government coalition, supported a proposal to work towards legalising the drug. The party calls the current system “prohibition”.
The Green League, the party of Finland”s interior minister, Maria Ohisalo, voted on the issue during a virtual conference earlier this month and the motion was accepted, albeit with the smallest possible margin: 183 votes to 181.
“We will indeed need to do quite some convincing still within our own party,” admitted the Green League’s Helsinki city council member Coel Thomas, who was one of the instigators of the proposal.
The small margin at the Green League’s conference actually reflects how contentious legalisation (or even just decriminalisation) of cannabis use remains for now in Finland: among its 5.5 million inhabitants, only a minority supported the idea in the last survey on the topic in 2018.
Currently, cannabis use is illegal in Finland.
“It is quite a harsh system,” says drug policy professor Pekka Hakkarainen, from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare in a phone interview with Euronews.
“If you get caught just once, you will be registered with a police information system for five to 10 years.
“This can lead to far-reaching consequences for schoolwork, a job search or getting a security clearance needed for particular jobs – in education for example.”
In more than 60 sectors, people who have been convicted of only…
