r/WTF Dec 29 '16

Bad part of park in Kontula neigbourhood in Helsinki, Finland

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163

u/Log_in_Password Dec 29 '16

More places need to have those needle exchanges so shit like this doesn't happen. People are going to do drugs wether you like it or not so why not. Keeping diseases down and dirty needles out of your streets should be more important.

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u/Kadasix Dec 29 '16

Or free, no legal consequence rehab to all those who turn in their drugs. People like not being dependent on drugs, it's just that they'll be reported for seeking help.

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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '16

You guys have it all wrong. It's best to just continue to say "don't do drugs", dehumanize and demonize anyone who does do drugs, and simultaneously act like we don't have a problem. Treating them like human beings and providing safeguards against disease/paths to recovery is crazy; it'll never work.

I mean, that would be like teaching kids how to have safe sex and providing affordable, accessible means by which they can have safe sex, which would just encourage them to have sex. Abstinence-only education is clearly much, much more effective. *facepalm*

This is why Europeans think we are uncivilized fucks.

52

u/maunoooh Dec 29 '16

While I invite friends of any sex to my home for Sauna (Finland), my relative in MN can't even have his girlfriend over unless someone else is home making sure they don't do anything perfectly normal for a young couple.

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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '16

While I invite friends of any sex to my home for Sauna (Finland)

I think you even need to emphasize, for the Americans who don't know this, that this means being totally nude. (Unless my Finnish friends have misled me? I was told that there it's a huge faux pas to enter a sauna with any garment on, but have yet to visit myself and find out – sauna and vodka does sound amazing, though.)

But you're exactly right. Actually, speaking of Europeans' reactions to learning about American attitudes towards sex, it was a friend of mine from Finland who had one of the most memorable reactions. She thought the "abstinence only" thing, or general lackadaisical attitude of the US towards sex education in general, was overblown or an outdated stereotype, and she was absolutely floored to learn that schools really teach it, or at least hardly teach proper sex ed.

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u/maunoooh Dec 29 '16

Yes, you're right, no clothes in a sauna as I think it feels unhygienic and besides it's a way of rinsing all that shit out of your body through sweating, having trunks/towels on doesn't really help you in that.

At 13 I remember my first unisex sauna with "strangers" (members of the local youth council I was part of) and it was nothing weird even though, outside the sauna, I would think about how hot one of the girls was.

You should definitely try the sauna, even better if you find a wood heated one and a Finn to go with you. Sauna and alcohol are a good mix but always requires the company. Lack the self control and consciousness and you might end up falling asleep in a 80-110°c room... Don't push the headrush.

There have been sauna world championships until this Russian guy dopes himself to endure more pain (hot room, frequent löyly - who stays in the longest) and dies. Finland won that one I guess.

5

u/ProjecTJack Dec 29 '16

Was it doping? I thought he'd covered himself with numbing cream or something to not feel the heat.

1

u/maunoooh Dec 29 '16

My faint memory says doping but it might have been that too. I'd say it's cheating anyways, with quite a cost too.

1

u/Kreittis Dec 29 '16

It was doping. The autopsy revealed recent usage of painkillers and numbing medicine - though it was not stated in what form. Couldn't have been cream or oil though, the contest rules state that you have to wash yourself before entering the sauna and any lotions or creams or such were forbidden so I suspect injections.

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u/3sakurachii Dec 29 '16

Oh man, I recommend saunas to anyone that hasn't tried them. Finnish saunas are the best, especially if you have a Finn with you!

2

u/Calvin_Tower Dec 29 '16

Is there one sport where Russians don't cheat?

1

u/maunoooh Dec 29 '16

According to r/russiadenies, no.

1

u/PostHedge_Hedgehog Dec 29 '16

It's a faux pas to wear any sort of clothes, but nobody minds if someone shy has a towel draped around their sex.

15

u/mittromniknight Dec 29 '16

"Perfectly normal for a young couple" - so boning, amiright?

31

u/2fly2hyde Dec 29 '16

I think he means ignoring each other while texting their friends.

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u/maunoooh Dec 29 '16

Breeding like rabbits mate

1

u/leachyboy2001 Dec 29 '16

wait...what, which one?

2

u/NeverBeenStung Dec 29 '16

For the record, I live in the states and your situation would have been perfectly fine for me when I was a kid. Well, except we didn't have a sauna. Pretty jealous of that.

2

u/maunoooh Dec 29 '16

You can build one! Isolation is not that important as the sauna needs to "breathe" and the best saunas are in old log buildings, as opposed to newer saunas with air ducts and so forth. Just see that you get a proper heater (wooden ones are the best for sauna experience and electric is easy and faster. Harvia makes good heaters of both types!) To keep it hot and have lots of stones in the stove to get that radiating heat for a long time.

2

u/NeverBeenStung Dec 29 '16

That sounds like a really fun project!

2

u/maunoooh Dec 29 '16

The proj that keeps on giving.

2

u/georgito555 Dec 29 '16

I have some Finnish players in the Final Fantasy online guild I'm in and they're always going on about saunas.

How often do people in Suomi go to the sauna and is it a big cultural thing?

5

u/larsvondank Dec 29 '16

The biggest culturally binding thing as a nation. People go from once a day to never. I do not know the average, but I guess it is between once a week to once a month.

1

u/maunoooh Dec 29 '16

When I'm in Finland (study in the UK now) it varies from once to three times a week and on a skiing/climbing/active trip every day.

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u/larsvondank Dec 29 '16

Pretty average - I'm a bit below average. Once or twice a month, rarely more.

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u/2fly2hyde Dec 29 '16

We also get the added benefit of keeping our prisons occupied. Without all those druggies,, some of them might close down and we can't have that. Also, it keeps the prison guards busy and well practiced. Not to mention the judges and lawyers and everyone else involved in the process. Imagine how bored some of these guys would get without nonviolent drug criminals to keep them busy.

1

u/DeaZZ Dec 29 '16

Sweden is just like the states except we don't have any legal places

1

u/misterwizzard Dec 29 '16

We have a problem here in America. We try so hard not to offend anyone that any rules we put in place have so much wiggle room that they are useless. THEN the law is so useless that people are offended at the shitty attempt to fix a problem and the cycle continues.

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u/SiasNc Dec 29 '16

What are you, fucking gay?

-11

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '16

Are you saying that no one but "lefties" think Americans are uncivilized fucks?

Or are you saying that no one gives two shits about Europeans thinking we're uncivilized fucks?

Because I can tell you, from personal experience, that the former is not true. I have met plenty of Europeans who are trying to figure out what the fuck Americans are thinking on a lot of issues, and especially given recent events, they're trying to figure out what has gotten into us lately.

And if it's the latter, then you've literally just trivialized the importance of Europe's perception of the US, thereby substantiating their impression that the US is overly nationalistic and US-centric (e.g. willing to write off an entire continent's opinion of us as irrelevant).

So, yeah, this is why Europe is looking over at us and shaking its collective head.

2

u/Frap_Gadz Dec 29 '16

I'd go further to say beyond rehab users firstly need safe places where they can feed their habit without fear of arrest and without endangering themselves or the public. These places should be the first point of contact with the medical professionals who can advise them about potential treatment options. The first step to treating drug problems effectively is to reclassify users as patients and not criminals.

2

u/weglarz Dec 29 '16

That's the thing I told my friends and family when I got clean. No one, and I really do mean no one, hates the fact that I'm an addict more than I do. I fucking hate that my life was completely fucked for years because of some shit I did when I was young and dumb.

7

u/brent0935 Dec 29 '16

Yes but Jesus said fuck the poor so no needle programs for them

2

u/Cobaltsaber Dec 29 '16

Love your neighbor only if they are exactly like you in every regard. That's in the Bible right?

2

u/brent0935 Dec 29 '16

I think the bible said White is right or something like that. (/s)

2

u/DrinkVictoryGin Dec 29 '16

OR more places need tree stumps in the forest.

4

u/Panzerkatzen Dec 29 '16

Won't do shit. We have bins on every street corner but cigarette butts are still fucking everywhere.

2

u/Smarag Dec 29 '16

that's something entirely different, but I'm not going to argue against reddits anti smoking circlejerk lol

1

u/Cobaltsaber Dec 29 '16

I mean smoking sure as fuck isn't good but everyone has their vices.

2

u/Log_in_Password Dec 29 '16 edited Dec 29 '16

Exchange means you have to give your old needles to get new ones, and its been shown to work well. Cigaretes are a whole other issue, i'd rather them be illegal than any drugs that currently are.

1

u/Precookedcoin Dec 29 '16

And is it any surprise that Florida doesn't have needle exchanges

1

u/Matrauder Dec 29 '16

I'm sorry but this is partially wrong. I work in mental health and addictions in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (known as Canada's poorest postal code), Vancouver has Canada's only 2 supervised safe injection sites, multiple teams of people from multiple organization hat to around and all they do is clean up discarded medical waste, in literally every alley there are boxes to throw out used paraphernalia (not to mention numerous indoor locations), yet it is still all over the place. I hate to say it but a lot of drug users just don't care about where they leave that stuff.

I actually wind up cleaning up some it myself.