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Finland Drug Enforcement
Narcotics abuse and trafficking were relatively small
problems, ranking below other social problems, such as
alcohol
abuse. The narcotics units of the KPR were responsible for
overseeing drug enforcement throughout the country.
Altogether,
there were about 150 officers working in drug enforcement,
half
of whom were attached to the Helsinki police. Drug
seizures by
police numbered 200 to 300 annually, but they accounted
for only
about 3 percent of the drugs consumed in the country.
About half
of the seizures consisted of heroin. Police estimated that
more
than 60 percent of all illicit narcotics entering Finland
in the
late 1980s had originated in Denmark. The most common
carriers
were returning Finnish workers living outside the country,
particularly in Sweden.
Finnish laws prohibited the use, the possession, and
the sale
of any drugs that were not approved pharmaceutical
products, and
the laws dealt severely with all drug-related offenses. No
formal
distinction was made regarding the quantity or the potency
of
drugs involved or regarding whether possession was for
personal
use or for sale. In practice, courts assessed penalties
according
to the type of drug; first offenders, possessing drugs for
personal use alone, usually received probation and/or a
fine. The
annual number of sentences for narcotics offenses ranged
from 369
in 1981 to 1,070 in 1985. Nearly half of these cases
involved
only drug use, the principal drug (73 percent of offenses)
being
marijuana. Although the number of persons sentenced was
obviously
rising, observers believed that the use of narcotics was
diminishing. The higher arrest rate was a result of a
widened
definition of what constituted a narcotics offense and to
more
effective police control.
* * *
A comprehensive overview of the contemporary
organization and
doctrine of the Finnish Defense Forces can be found in the
1988
work by Tomas Ries, Cold Will: The Defence of
Finland. The
first part of this study provides an account of the combat
experience of the armed forces in the Civil War of 1918
and in
the Winter War and Continuation War of 1939-44. Friedrich
Wiener's Die Armeen der neutralen und blockfreien
Staaten
Europas provides complementary information on the
configuration of the Defense Forces, together with
photographs
and technical data on weapons and vehicles. The
Military
Balance, 1988-89, produced by the International
Institute for
Strategic Studies in London, contains an up-to-date
listing of
the Finnish arms inventory.
Fundamentals of Finnish defense strategy, together with
the
organization of national defense and the structure of the
individual services, are summarized in a concise official
Ministry of Defense publication, Finnish National
Defence.
Although its appraisal of the strengths and the weaknesses
of the
armed forces is no longer current, the Report of the
Third
Parliamentary Defence Committee (1981) contains a
useful
analysis of Finland's security policy and its strategic
position
in Northern Europe. Aspects of Security: The Case of
Independent Finland, produced by the Finnish Military
History
Commission, traces the development of the Defense Forces
from
independence in 1917 to 1985, reviewing Finnish strategy
and
tactics in the campaigns of 1939 to 1944.
Numerous studies have analyzed Finland's military role
in
Northern Europe and the defense of Scandinavia. Nordic
Security by Erling Bjøl, although brief, examines the
common
geostrategic issues of the region and the diversified
approach to
security adopted by each of the five Nordic countries.
The organization and missions of the Frontier Guard and
the
police are summarized in two short official publications,
The
Frontier Guard in Finland and The Police of
Finland.
The Finnish Legal System, edited by Jaakko Uotila,
contains background on the Finnish system of justice and,
in an
article by Inkeri Anttila, a discussion of criminal law
and
punishment. (For further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of December 1988
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