The Greens, Cannabis and Manifactured Outrage

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Translation of a Finnish blog post. Original available here


Some of you are probably aware that recently the Finnish Greens voted in favor of an initiative calling for cannabis legalization at their party conference. The vote was close, 183 to 181. As expected, this caused some intense debate, if you can actually call it that. As somebody who was there, I guess I have to say something. Because ultimately, the idea is not as radical as it's portrayed as.

The decision means that the Finnish Greens are the first party in parliament to support cannabis legalization. Obviously this is a historic moment, but ultimately we're not alone with this demand. Before the Greens three minor parties have already called for legalization. Or what about political youth groups? The Green Party Youth, which I represented at the convention, have been calling for legalization for years. From other parties in parliament, the youth wings for the National Coalition and the Left Alliance are calling for legalization. Pretty much immediately after the conventions decision was announced, the NCP youth already started using it to attack party leadership. Full support. 

At the same time, it's worth pointing out what the convention vote was actually about: the options were cannabis legalization and decriminalization. Decriminalization was already the party position. So effectively, the Greens just took one step further. And when it comes to decriminalization that also has support from youth organizations: apart from those already mentioned, the youth wings for the Social Democrats and the Swedish People's Party have also expressed support.

And that's really the point here: around the world, drug policy is moving towards a more permissive direction. So even though the decision the Greens made at the convention is historic, it ultimately just follows global trends that are visible in Finland as well.

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