finland - land of ignorance or understanding?

[aynama]

hi. just thought about if anyone knows the finland's policy about salvia divinorum, since i am about to order some :grin:
Azarius does ship them here, but customs are customs.. :iconhead:

 

[Kitiem3000]

I'm afraid Salvia is illegal in Finland since 2002.

 

[aynama]

ah yes. it was that mm salvia sage flavoured 5x that i could order, it shows up on the list when i have logged in...
asked a finnish guy though, and he said too that finland has made it illegal.

i just have to go to holland and smuggle it :grin:
just kidding...

 

[traum]

I don't think that Salvia is actually illegal. But it is on the 'medicinal list', or whatever... so you can't order or import it without a certified doctors recipe. I tried couple of years back (not from Azarius, though). The customs officer was very kind to inform me about all this. And he let me keep only the lighter that was in the parcel...

On the 'medicinal list' there are quite a few herbs. So check it closely... Worst thing that can happen, is that you loose your money and order, but that's about it... If it was illegal, who knows what would happen?

Yeah. I just checked. The .pdf lists can be found here:

1. (finnish site)
http://www.laakelaitos.fi/laaketeollisuus/luokittelu/index.html

2. (english site)
http://www.nam.fi/english/pharma_industry/classification/index.html

 

[aynama]

yes i see. it says "can be considered" which will of course be taken "always is" in here.
but now all i need is a recipe :roller:

 

[aynama]

but now all i need is a recipe :roller:

ah. prescription i meant

 

[JohnLouce]

Could it be possible to get a permission on the basis on religious reasons? Psychedelics are quite essential part of most shamanic traditions, and since Finland has (in theory) freedom of religion, I'd find it a violation of human rights, if one is prohibited from practicing the religion of choice. Especially this should be the case on the substances that cannot really be used for recreational purposes, such as Salvia Divinorum or Ayahuasca-brew.
To me at least the psychedelic herbs and mushrooms are holy,and I rarely use even cannabis strictly for fun. I even hate to use it with other people, who usually don't appreciate the herb, and are just looking to get their heads messed up, which really is a sacrilege.

 

[Viaticus]

Could it be possible to get a permission on the basis on religious reasons?

I translated freely the following law:

Finland's constitution 11.6.1999/731:
11 § The freedom of religion and conscience

"Everyone has the freedom of religion and conscience

The freedom of religion and conscience includes the right to recognise and practice religion, the right to announce conviction and the right to belong or not to belong in a religious community. No one is obligated to take part in a practise of religion that is against ones conscience."

I tried to find more information just how "permissive" the "practicing"-paragraph is, but came up with no useful information. There must be some kind of line they draw, but wether it is situation dependant or not, I don't know.

Use of psychoactive substances tends to be a bit touchy subject so I doubt one could easily get a permission to use one or more of those substances based on religious beliefs. The idea is intriguing anyway, and I'll try to dig deeper and maybe come up with some more concrete info.

 

[tryptonaut]

The Scandinavian countries tend to restrict their people a lot about drugs (think of alcohol - a bottle of cheap 40% alcohol costs like 10EURO or less in Germany while it costs like 50EURO or more in Scandinavian countries...)
Although I think I know why... a friend of mine is half-Finnish and he has all the crazieness for drugs in his genes that one could ever have... LOL :alc: int:

 

[Viaticus]

think of alcohol - a bottle of cheap 40% alcohol costs like 10EURO or less in Germany while it costs like 50EURO or more in Scandinavian countries...)

Actually here in Finland we lowered the alcohol-tax just a while back. And a bottle of vodka didn't cost 50 euros even before that. And the effects were seen pretty instantaneously. During the next couple of weeks there was a rise in the amount of public drunkeness and alcohol-related crimes. :alc:

But I must say that there is some understanding towards psychoactive substances also. For example, the annual Cannabis March (at least in Helsinki) tends to run smoothly, with the police guiding the traffic and seeing that we can exercise our right to march in peace.

 

[iaMg0r0]

There should be more positive media about cannabis...every "article" in tabloids is usually negative..or neutral...and i'm talking about finnish media Maybe if people would smoke weed more "openly" (don't know if that word excists or not , and talk more about the positive thing about the substance. so that non-smokers and anti-cannabis people would get a different perspective towards cannabis..not the attitude which is found in news. There was a great article in finnish science magazine (one of the largest science mags in Finland) about medical usage of marijuana.. and that's the kind of exposure that we need if we really want cannabis to be decriminalized in Finland Although i don't think it's gonna take like 20 years till that happens... it could happen sooner that we could imagine Maybe i'm just dreaming but still :> Fuckin old people in politics and media.. totally different aspect in life and values. I would say that within 10-20 years cannabis will be legalized in Finland and most of the western countries We should just follow the strategy in the Netherlands or Canada.
There might be a lot of typos and stupid sentences but i haven't slept whole night and it's almost 10am in Finland Goddamn tramadol keeps me awake :> but i like it