"Sometimes I get so tired of my situation that I cant bear it"

On the streets of Helsinki there are more and more young people battling addiction.

Record numbers of young people are dying of overdoses in Finland, and this is visible on the streets of Helsinki.

    A smooth-cheeked young man in red sweatpants and Air Jordans drops a sports bag on the ground. Outside the grocery store at Sörnäskurvan, it’s crowded, people have gathered. The young male, who could be in high school looks around and smiles. The bag contains beer and lonkero. The cans change hands and when they are sold it the most important question is asked “Do you have subu?”

A few bills and subutex tablets change hands, the sun shines and the small smoke columns of cigarettes find their way to the sky. On the surface there is peace, for a little while.

    Jenny Kaasinen-Wickman and Saara Lappeteläinen have been inside the store and shopped; 15 meatpies and a box of protein drinks. Working with outreach work, Kaasinen-Wickman for the Deaconess Institution's Tukialus and Lappeteläinen as outreach nurse at the City of Helsinki.

Although the official statistics show that homelessness is decreasing, the experience among those who work with this on the streets is different: now there are more and more young people with addictions on the streets.

    Compared to other European countries, Finland holds a sad top position: the proportion of young people under the age of 25 who have died is the largest.

    At Vasaskvären, Allu H. unfolds the bag containing the pie and bites into it. He lost his home two weeks ago and now lives with his girlfriend.

“Sometimes I try to sleep in a public toilet, but it's not really possible to sleep there properly”, he says. The streets are not safe and he’s been beaten several times.

    It always causes sadness. Every single one of these deaths could have been prevented. All young people have people who love them and a future and opportunities that are wiped out when they die, says Kaasinen-Wickman.

in the summer, new young people from sparsely populated areas come on adventures to the capital. Some of them will never return when the summer holidays are over.

                                                                                                                                                           Text by Jenny Bäck