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Finland: Cannabis culture takes root in Finnish provinces

Helsinki Times

Thursday 30 Jul 2009

Homegrown cannabis has expanded tremendously and spread throughout Finland, reports the national daily Helsingin Sanomat.

“’It is easy to find space for indoor cultivation in sparsely populated areas where one doesn’t have to worry about sharp-eyed neighbours. Also, small, local police departments do not always have their own drug units which are specialised in investigating this kind of crime,’ says Chief Inspector Esa Grönlund of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), who is specialised in drug-related crimes.

According to a conservative estimate by the NBI, there are at least 10,000 cannabis cultivators in Finland. The Finnish Cannabis Association (FCA) believes the fi gure is 10,000-20,000.

The number of cannabis plant confi scations has increased considerably. In 2007 the police confi scated 7,600 hemp plants cultivated for drug use nationwide. Last year the number of plants confi scated was as much as 14,000.”

“Urban youths’ cannabis experimentation has declined in the 2000s, but in the provinces hemp smoking is still on the rise. The change in the trend can be seen in an ESPAD (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) intoxicant survey conducted for ninth grade students. In the most recent survey in 2007, about seven per cent of all respondents admitted to using cannabis.

The topic of youth cannabis use arose in Sastamala, when 16 inhabitants of the small town in the Tampere Region were taken into police custody during the RMJ Midsummer festival. The police investigation, which started at the music event, has expanded to include around 50 people from Sastamala and the surrounding area.

Most of the people involved are youths who were caught using home-grown cannabis. For them, this is their fi rst run-in with the police.”

HELSINGIN SANOMAT 26 July. MATTI RÄMÖ
Lehtikuva - Vesa Moilanen

http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/finnish-papers/7325--cannabis-culture-takes-root-in-finnish-provinces.html

 

 

 

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