“The A-Clinic Foundation, in collaboration with the Diakonissalaitos and Tukikohta ry, organized a drug consumption room simulation on October 24, 2023. This marked Finland’s first-ever drug consumption room simulation, aiming to showcase how a consumption room operates and the services it provides.

Currently, there is an active debate in Finland regarding supervised drug consumption facilities. A citizens’ initiative for legislative changes is currently under consideration in the parliament. However, public discourse has long been plagued by misinformation about these facilities. To engage in a proper dialogue on this subject, it is essential that all parties have accurate information. With this in mind, we organized the consumption room simulation to simulate what supervised drug consumption spaces could practically look like in Finland. We invited representatives from the media and members of parliament with their assistants. We conducted a total of three simulations, each lasting two hours, with 8 to 14 participants in each session.

We constructed a miniature model of our low-threshold meeting place, resembling what a consumption room in Finland could be like. Our services included an injection/smoking room, health counselling, distribution of clean supplies, substance identification, a doctor, a nurse, social guidance, and peer support. We created role characters for the visitors based on real-life scenarios, allowing them to play the role of potential consumption room users. These characters represented individuals who might use a consumption room. The simulation was carried out based on the legislative proposal currently under consideration in the parliament.

Our main message was to convey that a consumption room is not just about a space where visitors use drugs, but it is part of a broader service offering harm reduction work. The consumption room is just one component of this service package. There is a lot of misinformation circulating about consumption rooms, and through the simulation, we aimed and also succeeded in correcting these misconceptions.

The simulation received an exceptionally positive reception. Members of parliament and their assistants provided positive feedback on the event, and the media wrote the following articles on the topic:

https://yle.fi/a/74-20056575

https://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/art-2000009943350.html

https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/videot/klipit/prog20728247

https://www.helsinginuutiset.fi/paikalliset/6303427

https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/092c31a9-b721-4410-adfe-6a173c0735ea

https://svenska.yle.fi/a/7-10044086

https://www.mediuutiset.fi/uutiset/mu/feb0a063-f162-4ed6-98b5-da5c6df892c3