Attitudes towards the setting up of drug consumption facilities vary largely among Finland's political parties, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) found in a recent poll.
In early July, the health agency announced that overdose deaths are on the rise in Finland, reigniting a debate regarding methods to tackle drug abuse. Between 2015 and 2020, accidental drug doses almost doubled, according to Statistics Finland.
Three government parties - the Left Alliance, the Green League and the Swedish People's Party - all stepped up in favour of supervised drug consumption rooms in the THL's email survey. The prime minister's Social Democrats and the opposition National Coalition Party meanwhile held a more cautious stance on the issue in THL's poll.
Education Minister Li Andersson's Left Alliance has called for new legislation to legalise the move and has expressed its support for the practise to be implemented in areas beyond the capital.
"Consumption rooms increase the safety of both users and other people. The facilities can help increase users' awareness of available services as well as reduce overdoses, drug poisoning deaths and drug use on the streets," the party's statement reads.
The Left Alliance said in June that drug abuse in general should be handled through social and healthcare policies, not the judicial system, and called for the decriminalisation of drug use.
"A good substance abuse policy is humane, effective and harm reducing. Proof in favour of the rooms is comprehensive, and for example, THL has expressed its backing of the operating rooms," the Greens write in their own response. Environment Minister Maria Ohisalo's Greens became the first party in Finland to call for the legalisation of cannabis in September last year.
The Swedish People's Party has meanwhile called for supervised use rooms to be commissioned, only if applied research (conducted by a national working group) supports the move.
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Although apprehensive, the Social Democratic Party said that they would like to at least see the method be investigated.
"It is important to have a more detailed knowledge base on how supervised consumption rooms would work and what impact they could have in Finland," according to the party's statement on the issue.
The National Coalition Party followed a similar line.
"The NCP has found it would make sense to assess the effects of drug use rooms on the basis of existing international empirical information," Petteri Orpo's party said, adding that investigations would require vast cooperation among city and health authorities.
Some parties meanwhile say they are not convinced use rooms are an effective method in tackling drug abuse.
The opposition Christian Democrats expressed fears over the facilities constituting drug use as 'more acceptable' while the Finns Party said that the move could even exacerbate drug abuse. Movement Now said that public funds would be better utilised elsewhere for prevention.
THL said that the Centre Party, a government partner, did not provide the agency with an explanation of its opposition towards the concept.
TetraSys Oy.