Younger people take larger roles in Lahti drug market

Younger people are playing a growing role in Lahti’s drug market, with police confiscating increasingly large quantities of drugs from them, Yle reports. Some cases involve quantities large enough to be investigated as aggravated drug offences.

Lahti has long been regarded as Finland’s amphetamine capital. Amphetamine remains visible in the work of police and Jelppi, a health advice centre that exchanges needles for people who inject drugs. In recent years, however, alfa-PVP and cocaine have also become more common in the city.

Toni Käyhkö, a detective chief inspector with the Häme police, said he would not yet describe the change as a generational shift in Lahti’s drug market. He has nevertheless seen a clear change in his own work.

“The quantities confiscated from young people are clearly larger,” Käyhkö said.

Young people are no longer involved only in individual drug-use offences. In some cases, they have possessed such large quantities that the offences are being investigated as aggravated drug offences. Käyhkö said this trend has increased.

In a recent cocaine investigation in Lahti, police suspect that more than 12 kilograms of cocaine were brought into the city over nearly a year. Several young people allegedly took part in distributing the drugs, and some of those suspected were minors at the time of the offences.

One major operator has now been removed from the market, but police do not expect the city’s drug supply to decline for long.

“Whenever a larger operator is removed, the gap is filled to some extent through one channel or another,” Käyhkö said.

Police aim to influence who operates in the market and remove its biggest actors. But according to police, the law of supply and demand also applies to drug markets.

Drug trade moves online

Käyhkö said the drug market has become more professional and its structure has changed. An increasing share of drug sales and network-building takes place online, meaning transactions no longer need to happen visibly on the streets.

This also makes police work more difficult. Investigations can take longer and require technical analysis.

At the same time, cocaine availability has increased in Lahti. Police seizures have risen since 2024, and Käyhkö said wastewater studies also support the picture of growing use.

Lahti is not an exception. Similar growth has been seen in other large cities. Among Lahti, Hämeenlinna and Riihimäki, Lahti has recorded the most cocaine seizures, and the number has risen annually, according to the Häme police.

Jelppi also sees younger clients

Jelppi, Lahti’s health advice centre for people who inject drugs, has also observed a younger clientele over the past year. Its largest client group remains people aged 25 to 40.

“The share of young people among visitors comes in waves. Over the past year, younger people have been coming in,” said Laura St. Clair, a social services professional at Jelppi.

Jelppi has had about 600 different clients this year and distributed approximately 250,000 pieces of injecting equipment. The number of needles distributed has increased substantially over the longer term.

Jelppi employees said amphetamine and buprenorphine remain common. They also identified alfa-PVP as a more visible substance, saying they have seen more abscesses and infections associated with its use.

They said mental health problems and financial hardship have also increased among people who use drugs. They are particularly concerned about the growing number of young clients if preventive services for children and young people are cut at the same time.

Researcher Kirsimarja Raitasalo of THL said research data does not confirm that problematic drug users are becoming younger.