Use of amphetamine spikes in Helsinki

The use of amphetamine has risen to record levels in the Helsinki metropolitan area this year, said the National Police Board in a press release.

This is revealed by the nearly real-time data of the currently ongoing wastewater analyses by the National Institute of Health and Welfare (THL)

“The use of amphetamine has tripled since 2013, and no clear decline has been detected in any of the drugs analysed in the wastewater study, despite restrictive measures related to coronavirus,” said Teemu Gunnar, the head of the Forensic Toxicology Unit at THL.

Since the state of emergency entered into force in mid-March, the use of amphetamine has seen an average increase of 15 per cent in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area compared to that in the previous six months.

“No link between the increase in amphetamine use and the exceptional circumstances caused by coronavirus can be indicated. But the fact remains that amphetamine use has been higher than ever before, at least in the Helsinki metropolitan area”, Gunnar said.

Methamphetamine use spiked in 2016 and 2017. Since then, the use has returned to a low level and there was no major change in the use of methamphetamine during this spring.

Growth in the use of cocaine has halted and the use of ecstasy has remained nearly unchanged.

The use of Cocaine increased manifold in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area in 2013 to 2019. However, the rates of their use have stabilised and even decreased recently.

“Despite this, the restrictive measures taken due to the coronavirus situation, such as closing restaurants and restrictions on assembly or cross-border traffic, do not seem to have considerably affected the use of cocaine. It will be interesting to see how phasing out restrictions will affect this”, said THL Development Manager Aino Kankaanpää.

Amphetamine has been the most common finding in drug-impaired driving cases for nearly 20 years now. In 2019, around 60 per cent of all suspects in drug-impaired driving cases had been using amphetamine. During the first quarter of this year, amphetamine was detected in the samples of 1,771 suspects involved in drug-impaired driving cases. Last year, amphetamine was detected in 1,359 DUI cases.

Amphetamine was also visible in the samples of seized drugs examined in the forensic laboratory earlier this year. The total amount in the 1,853 samples examined between January and April was nearly 125kg. In comparison, the total amount in 2018 was around 147kg and around 157kg in 2019.