The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) published seven recommendations to help prevent drug-related deaths.
Health and the Department of Welfare (THL) recommends periodic use room testing for drug users. According to THL, the operating room experiment would provide important information on how the service affects drug-related deaths.
THL recommends a temporary separate law that would allow for the testing of facilities supervised by healthcare personnel. For the time being, Finnish legislation does not allow the establishment or testing of operating spaces.
The recommendation is part of a seven-point recommendation list published by THL that could be used to prevent drug-related deaths in Finland. It has been compiled by Hear, THL’s expert group on drug prevention.
“Deaths from drug poisoning and deaths from long-term drug use have been on the rise throughout the 21st century, and services need to respond to this changed situation,” said the team leader and specialist. Sanna Kailanto In THL’s press release.
Statistics Finland According to 2020, more than 250 people died of drugs in Finland, about half of whom were men under the age of 35.
Bridge during the government term, legislation on operating rooms is not expected, says the consulting official Elina Kotovirta Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM).
“As the decision on the operating rooms was not made in the government negotiations, the drafting of the law is also not in the legislative plan. The government also did not decide on the preparation of the matter in December, when the Government’s decision-in-principle on drug policy was issued, ”Kotovirta says by e-mail.
According to a report by THL’s working group, the most important function of operating rooms in Finland would be to reach out to those outside of drug treatment and to direct them to help, which could affect the number of drug-related deaths.
“Many drug users living in the margins are not really in any social or health care services, which causes even more problems. It would be possible to reach such people through the operating rooms, ”says Sanna Kailanto to STT.
The aim of the operating rooms would also be to provide guidance on hazardous combined use and to reduce risky injecting.
In addition, use rooms can be used to divert drug use out of the public space.
Finland According to the report, the challenge is that operating rooms would not necessarily significantly reduce drug poisoning deaths, as in Finland they are mainly caused by the concomitant use of long-acting buprenorphine and central nervous system depressants.
A life-threatening intoxication condition often occurs after hours when a person has already left the mode of use.
In many other countries, more rapid-acting opioids cause death more quickly.
Buprenorphine is produced, among other things, under the name Subutex.
According to Kailanto, this is why it would be good to get research evidence on the effects of operating rooms on drug-related deaths in Finland.
“This is, of course, a very divisive issue politically, because it is a very divisive issue among voters. Yes, this is a bit behind the fact that this has not been recorded in the government program, ”says Kailanto.
THL released last week statistical report of drug treatment clients in 2020. More than a quarter of substance abuse clients who responded to the survey reported that buprenorphine was their primary problem drug. More than half of the clients in substance abuse treatment also reported their mixed use.
Operating room experiment In addition, THL recommends rapid access to opioid substitution treatment, improving the availability of the naloxone overdose antibody, strengthening trust between drug users and authorities, facilitating access to health counseling services, strengthening co-operation with the police in all sectors and targeting communication.
Kailanto considers all means important in the current situation, but the most important thing, according to him, would be the availability of opioid substitution treatment and substance abuse treatment: that assessment and treatment can be accessed quickly, the threshold for stopping treatment should be as high as possible.
According to Kailanto, there is strong evidence that the mortality of drug users in opioid substitution treatment is significantly lower than that of those not in substitution treatment.
“Compared to many countries in the world, we have a much smaller proportion of problem users in substitution treatment or substance abuse treatment,” says Kailanto.
“We already have tools in place and in place that are effective,” but their availability is still far too small for the need.
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