Also on tonight’s Radio Free Finland, Kimmo Wilska of HPP ry to discuss Finland’s drug policy.

Born October 5, 1956 in Helsinki Moved with family to United States, 1958 (spent almost every summer in Finland) Went to school in Tucson, Arizona, heavily influenced by political upheavals of the 1960s - civil rights, Vietnam War, environmental movement. The disadvantages of prohibitionist drug policy also became apparent to me at that time.

Moved back to Finland in 1972. It took quite a while to figure out the intricacies of what passed for progressive politics. The first openly political movement I became active in was the Koijärvi movement in 1979-1980, involving civil disobedience, among other things. I was heavily involved in the process that led to the establishment of the Green League, and am still a member of the party.

During the 1980s I wrote, and managed to get published, a number of letters to editors of Finnish newspapers taking a critical view of prohibitionist drug policy in general, and cannabis prohibition in particular. I joined the Finnish Cannabis Association in the early 1990s, and more recently HPP - Humaania päihdepolitiikkaa - the Finnish Association for a Humane Drug Policy. I am currently its chairman - somewhat by default, perhaps, as activity has been at a low ebb. We’re currently focusing on maintaining awareness among the people involved, and trying to get our web site back on line after some technical misadventures. The aim, nevertheless, is to promote the policy of minimising harm caused by the use of drugs, and recognising that the prohibitionist approach tends to cause very serious problems in its own right.

I studied English as my main subject at the University of Helsinki, and now I am something of a media professional in English, working more or less free lance (I will not go into specifics about my employers for reasons that should not be too hard to figure out.

I have a wife and a son who will be 20 later this year. Although I was a CO, he is now in the Army and will start medical school in the autumn.