From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Subject: Influencing drug law change
Reply-To: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 01:56:25 GMT

OK, the scoop is that the new Finnish drug law should be coming to
Parliament roughly a couple of weeks from now, and I'm considering
participating in trying to inmfluence the outcome.  So I'm calling for
support/hints/advice/anything.

An expert group proposed some changes in a sensible direction to the
law, namely making it just a small crime to _use_ drugs and possess
for own use.  Trading and others would still normally be criminal with
max. two yers.  Currently it's up to two years for everything, and for
big amounts or "extremely dangerous drugs" (meaning just about
anything else but cannabis) it's min. one year, max. ten years.  Using
would always be a "minor crime" (rikkomus) which would have a maximum
penalty of a fine, also trading and such (a "normal"-type crime) would
be a "minor crime" if considering the amount, circumstances etc. as a
whole the crime would be minor.  _And_, for just use and acts
connected with use, there would be a possibility to not prosecute or
not punish, if the suspect shows that he/she has gone to treatment by
the social & health officials.  Also, since it's a minor crime, this
apparently could be done also without the treatment (and the
social&health officials do have some sense here, you could probably
find a suitable place at least in Helsinki area where they would just
laugh and say sure to anyone going to treatment for smoking some hash).

OK.  The head of the Justice Department whose business the preparation
is said "No Way".  It would send the wrong signal to other countries
to say that Finland is making drug laws more lax, she said.  And thus
the proposal was changed - no more "minor crime" for use.  The
proposal is not yet final, so I have no details on that, but if it'll
fit thru the X.400 mail system I'll get it by email from the Justice
Department in a couple of weeks.

Last winter / Spring, there was relatively much about drugs & drug
policy on TV - a document about the Netherland's drug policy, for
example.  In Helsingin Sanomat, _the_ major newspaper in Finland,
there was a loud and clear propaganda campaign against drugs - though
the humorist columnist and one writer on the culture pages did voice
some anti-Wod opinions.  But the anti-criminalization viewpoint is in
general accepted for consideration - there have been letters published
in Helsingin Sanomat about that, and it's not political suicide to
voice dissent about drugs here.  Besides, the social & health
departments of the government and some other parts supported the
original proposal instead of Pokka's proposal.

The 200 representatives in the Finnish parliament have email accounts.
Around a third even reads their mail regularly, and a third from while
to while.  There's no Internet connection (yet) and no electronic
conference / Usenet software there, so email would be what to use.  A
public forum with some representatives via email and the
info-providers via a newsgroup would be an option, as would be a
public or private mailing list.

There's a publication "Hamppu" (Hemp) by the Finnish Cannabis
coalition (?, Suomen kannabisyhdistys), which has published some
material on cannabis.  I have plenty of material from the net, that
should probably be translated to Finnish.

Don't know about other tools (media outlets and such) - there are
probably some other Finnish readers who might have ideas.  There are
researches with suitable support material (books) in Finnish, but that
would need funding - and how to get the representatives to read books?
Don't think so.  It could be possible to use these researches or eg.
the health care / social side people (or former, at least one has
spoken openly against the demonization/criminalization approach),
either to ask for advice or to have meetings/discussions.  In one
discussion-program on TV, there was Osmo Kontula (written many books
and done research on drug issues, respected and sensible, books
provide lots of material) in one, the head of the Cannabis coalition
in one, and one person who has written to Helsingin Sanomat letters
department but who was IMHO not very good in either TV or the paper.

Hmm - is the original proposal actually decriminalization?  Perhaps
not quite, but almost, and in practice it could leave room open for
decriminalization with no law changes.  So, the original proposal
would be one possible goal to aim for - it would have support from the
experts, social people etc.  What other possible goals would there be?

Perhaps I'll continue some other time - any comments for now?
Interested people in Finland with resources, ideas etc.?

(one primary reason for the law change is international pressure, as
was originally the reason for Finland adopting drug laws anyway)

//Jyrki
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs