Reader’s Opinion | Drug use rooms can be justified by ethics

Opinion|Reader’s opinion

Drugs operating rooms are justified by, among other things, safer injection and prevention of overdose deaths. I would like to bring an ideological perspective to the discussion.

The value base of Sininauhasäätiö group is Christian. The voices of Christian actors have perhaps been more commonly heard in preventive and sobriety measures than in harm-reducing drug addiction work. However, my experience as a priest who sympathizes with the lives of people who use drugs is that while a hard life often seems like a punishment, additional punishment often does not bring the desired better result. If I were to use intravenous drugs myself, I would rather do it in a legal operating room than on the street or in a public restroom. A utility room can be the answer to someone’s prayers.

One principle of Western ethics is to be on the side of the weaker. The one in a stronger position seems to be flexible in relation to the one in a weaker position. One can consider what the observance of this principle would mean in practice in each situation.

Decision-makers could also refresh their memory with British anthropologist Mary Douglas’s (1921-2007) theory of purity and danger. In it, the community categorizes clean and dirty things among themselves. Clean things are pursued and dirty things are cleaned aside and shut out, because they are perceived as threatening and violating order.

Hopefully, tolerating the complexity of life, a more humane day or the idea of ​​recovery would fit into the concept of what other good things are thought of with the next enabling of utility rooms.

Jenni Tuulensuu

priest who is addicted to drugs, Sininauha Foundation Group

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