Drug experimentation has continued to increase in Finland while more Finns support changes in drug policy
Experimentation with illegal drugs and drug use have continued to increase, according to a population survey conducted by THL in the autumn of 2022. Nearly 30 percent of the adult population have tried an illegal drug in their lifetimes – most commonly, cannabis. The proportion of those who have tried cannabis has increased fivefold from six percent in 1992 to 29 percent in 2022.
Experimentation with other drugs has also increased, although the numbers are much lower than for those who have used cannabis. Seven percent of the population said that they had tried amphetamine at some time in their lives, with six percent reporting having used ecstasy, while five percent had used cocaine. The use of sports doping drugs has remained unchanged. One percent of the population have used them at some time in their lives.
Figure. The proportion of those in the Finnish population aged 15–69 who have experimented with or used cannabis or other substances at some time in their lives in 1992-2022, %.
Many stop using drugs after trying them once or a few times
Drug use is usually limited to experimental use once, twice, or a few times, while many have stopped using a long time ago. It is hardly surprising that increasing numbers of people aged 15–69 have tried drugs at some point in their lives.
“The surveys targeted people who were between the ages of 15 and 69 at the time that the material for each survey was collected. The older age groups with fewer drug-related experiences gradually drop out of the sample of the survey”, says Karoliina Karjalainen, a senior researcher at THL.
This means that an increasing proportion of the target group are those who were young in the 1990s or thereafter, when use of illegal drugs began to become more common in Finland.
“From a previous survey we know that a significant portion of age groups born in the 1980s and 1990s have tried drugs. Against this background, the increase in the proportion of the population who have used drugs was largely an expected result”, Karjalainen observes.
Especially the perceptions of risk related to cannabis have eased. The survey showed that 57 percent felt that trying cannabis once or twice poses only a low risk to health, or other potential harm. Twenty percent felt the same way about the risks of regular use of cannabis.
For the first time in the history of the survey, those viewing the risks of regular use of cannabis as minimal at worst outnumbered those who felt that the risks of weekly consumption of alcohol to the point of intoxication were low.
Opinions on punishments for drug use have eased
According to the survey, 29 percent of people would be ready to lift criminal sanctions against the use of all drugs. This was nine percentage points higher than in 2018. Fifty three percent of the population opposed punishment for cannabis use.
“Opinions on the illegality of drug use are clearly in a flux. This corresponds to the increasingly common view also in international debate, that responses to use should primarily come from the social and health care sector”, says Research Professor Pekka Hakkarainen of THL.
In the survey, 24 percent felt that cannabis should be legally available for any purpose, while 56 percent supported making cannabis available only for medical purposes. In 2018 the corresponding numbers were 18 and 54 percent.
Safe spaces for drug consumption, an issue which has been a focus of much public debate, were seen as acceptable, either completely, or partially, by 65 percent. In 2018 the figure was 50 percent.
The results on drug use and attitudes toward drugs among Finns are based on the THL Drug Survey which has been repeated as a mail-in questionnaire at intervals of about four years since 1992. Responding to the questionnaire were 3,857 people aged 15 to 69.
Further information
Drug use and attitudes toward drugs among Finns (in Finnish).
Karoliina Karjalainen
Senior Researcher
THL
tel. +358 29 524 7933
Pekka Hakkarainen
Research Professor
THL
tel. +358 29 524 7161
Mikko Salasuo
Title of docent in economic and social history
University of Helsinki
Tel. +358 40 548 5520
[email protected]
