Finnish Newspapers' Positions on Drug Policy between 1993 and 2000

Based on an analysis of editorials published in five Finnish newspapers from 1993 to 2000, this article discusses the role of the print press in the 1990s efforts to bridge the gap between restrictive drug policy and drug-harm-minimization policy in Finland. The analysis shows that from 1993 to 2000 there was a tone of “moral panic” in Finnish newspapers’ assessment that drug trafficking originating from abroad and the related crime were the prime challenge for Finnish drug policy. However, none of the five newspapers considered a restrictive drug policy sufficient. They maintained that while police control was necessary, further steps were needed so that the problem could be properly tackled as the internal national problem that it in fact constituted. The editorials recommended three lines of action: (1) an extensive drug treatment system should be developed, (2) young people, families, and communities should be urged to support a drug-free way of life, and (3) the authorities should be cautious in the introduction of drug testing. However, the analysis shows that the newspapers did not actually deal with the ideological ruptures and tensions that the promotion of drug-harm-reduction techniques caused for the dominant restrictive drug policy. The papers just pragmatically stated that more resources needed to be allocated to the strategy of prohibition as well as to the techniques of harm reduction.