Heroin makes comeback on Finnish drug scene, several deaths this year
Heroin has come back to the Finnish illegal drugs market. Street trading has increased, as has the number of overdose deaths, and those seeking treatment.
Whereas there were no heroin overdose deaths recorded in Finland last year, there have been several in 2005.
Nevertheless, Erkki Vuori of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Helsinki, says that the number of heroin deaths "can be counted on the fingers of one hand".
The war in Afghanistan had led to a sharp decline in the smuggling of heroin through Russia and Estonia to Finland. The potency of the drug declined, and the price shot up.
There was a gap in the market, and many addicts took to intravenous use of buprenorphine, a drug commonly used in pill form in the weaning of addicts from their opioid dependency.
Buprenorphine is not as easily available for use in the rehabilitation of addicts in Finland as it is in many other European countries, and many Finnish users travel to France, Latvia, and Estonia to acquire the drug on prescription. In many cases, the imported prescription buprenorphine finds its way onto the Finnish black market.
The best known versions of buprenorphine are the brands Temgesic and Subutex.
"Subutex has held its own fairly well, although now it looks like there is some heroin moving on the Finnish market. In Central Europe it has been available all the time", says Petri Rainiala of the Helsinki police.
The return of heroin had been expected. Vuori, who has performed post mortem examinations on overdose victims, predicted last spring that heroin would make a comeback in ten years.
"It is quite clear that heroin will rise. Users like it because of its fast effect", Vuori says.
The price of heroin on the street has gone down, and its availability has increased. Nevertheless Subutex remains one of the most widely-used drugs right after amphetamine and cannabis.
"We see heroin, but nine out of ten people who apply for treatment with us use buprenorphine as their main drug, and one in ten use heroin. That is the ratio", says Mika Paasolainen, head of the Drug Addiction Treatment Clinic of Helsinki’s Deaconess Institute.
The popularity of Subutex is based on its low price, even quality, and easy availability. "Subutex is currently clearly the best business article of the drug trade. With other drugs the profit margin is smaller", Rainiala says.
A gramme of heroin costs between EUR 120 and EUR 130 on the street, and the price on the wholesale market is between EUR 70 and EUR 80 a gramme.
One Subutex pill costs about two euros at a French pharmacy. Rainiala says that on the black market in Helsinki the same pill can fetch EUR 30, in Central Finland it costs EUR 50, and inside prisons a single pill can go for as much as EUR 100.
When used orally in drug treatment, one Subutex pill works as a single dose, but when it is dissolved and used intravenously, it gives many doses.
Buprenorphine alone does not carry the risk of death by overdose, but death can occur when it is used in combination with alcohol and other drugs. More than 70 people were reported to have died of such mixing of drugs last year.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 19.12.2005 - TODAY |
 Heroin makes comeback on Finnish drug scene, several deaths this year
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