Indeed quite strange that the rule is applied to musicians. Perhaps there has been unusually high amounts of drug related problems in music institutions and they’ve seen this as a way to improve the situation?

Under the law, a student in vocational training can lose the right to study if he or she is incapable of working in the profession itself. In practice, this rule is applied only to musicians and air traffic controllers,

We’re talking about students here – it reminds me of an old South Park episode about drugs and the guidance counselor says, “There’s a time and place for everything, and it’s called ‘college’”.

Believe it or not, people can change, drug experimentation in college probably won’t extend into one’s professional life.

The whole musician thing is just comical, of course they use drugs, THEY’RE MUSICIANS!! It’s like taking away a carpenter’s hammer.

If someone isn’t performing in their job, they should be fired, it has nothing to do with drug use. What you do in your free time is your business. Believe it or not, people can go home and smoke weed every night and do an excellent job during the day, although I definitely wouldn’t recommend it, stoners don’t seem to be the “best” employees. Although alcoholics would perform even worse and be more of a safety hazard in my opinion, but Sarkomaa only seem to want to kick out the stoners while the boozers need to be taken care of like children.

I thought Fireball was level 3 spell?

The employers should be given the right to do whatever they like. If the employee (or student AKA customer in a school) don’t like how he’s treated, he can always change his employer (or school). These are libertarian basics.

It turns out that the use of performance-enhancing drugs by musicians is controversial. Yes, performance enhancing drugs. See this article in The Partial Observer. Excerpt:

If you ask a group of musicians (especially a string player) about their feelings regarding Inderal and you’ll likely get an ear full. Some players find it to be a god send which allows them to consistently perform at their best while others see it as an artificial crutch that eliminates a level playing field.

Proponents state that Inderal allows them to demonstrate the absolute best of the natural ability and results of their years of hard work. They claim the drug doesn’t enhance their ability to play their instrument, it merely allows them to display their natural ability.

Score one up for the Kokoomus fanboys.

I can’t understand where you get this musicians + drugs.

It says a student in vocational training can lose the right to study if he or she is incapable of working in the profession itself.

Says nothing about drugs there. Says – if the tuba player gets asthma and can’t blow. Or the drummer has no rythm. Or the singer has no voice.

If the employee (or student AKA customer in a school) don’t like how he’s treated, he can always change his employer (or school).

Where is he going to study then in a country with practically no private schools?

Yep, I reckon that Hank W. (comment #7) got this right: music students will be asked to go packing (also outside of Finland – I think) if they do not achieve.

I bet Jari Sillanpää never once tried drugs.

But Joel Hallikainen did. The results fell somewhat short of Revolver or Sgt Pepper.

Otto Donner recommended MJ and mescaline warmly in 1964:

http://users.lycaeum.org/~sky/julkaisut/hamppu/hamppu1.93/saksittu.html

I think this is just a cheap bullshit populist move to score points in light of the recent Nurse Death case. Typical Kokoomus.

#7:

I’m not going to argue what the quoted sentence semantically means. But the paper edition of HeSa today (21.9) more or less directly expressed, that Sarkomaa wants to extend the abillity to expel “päihdeongelmaiset” (i.e. not only drug abusers) from social and health care schools, which is something that is currently in use only for air traffic control & music students. I must say it caught my eye too, and sounds too crazy to be true. Why Sarkomaa didn’t include medical schools – while she’s eagerly hunting for freebies – is beyond me.

gee… drugs

and where are the Tar and Feathers?

gEE.. NO BRAINER

Lets see.

My neighbor misses work for 3 days. He was on drugs. To drugged out to work.

He gets fired.

And wonders why?

Geee

Phil: “Helsingin Sanomat must have made a typo, maybe they meant “Magicians”.”

Lest someone not recognise the sarcasm, here’s the original Finnish text:

“Lain mukaan ammatillisessa koulutuksessa oleva opiskelija voi menettää opinto-oikeutensa, jos hänellä ei ole edellytyksiä työskentelyyn ammatissa. Pykälää tosin sovelletaan vain muusikoihin ja lennonjohtajiin…”

#12 “I’m not going to argue what the quoted sentence semantically means. But the paper edition of HeSa today (21.9) more or less directly expressed, that Sarkomaa wants to extend the abillity to expel “päihdeongelmaiset” (i.e. not only drug abusers)”

The concept of abuse implies that the use causes problems, although I do concede that in the narcophobic atmosphere that still prevails in many countries today, the implication is that any consumption of one of the drugs classified as illegal is, by definition, “abuse”, whether or not any problems are involved.

Not so very long ago, any kind of sexual activity involving something other than married spouses of opposite genders engaging in vaginal intercourse with the man on top for the purpose of procreation was, by definition, “perversion”.

Maybe someone should do some digging on Sarkomaa to see if she has a 100% substance abuse free background, especially while she was studying.

I just have to grab that comment about the Finnish music scene. The Finnish music scene is fantastic. Currently Finns have a double lead in the British Rock Charts. You can learn more from http://musex.fi/mxf/player/

Oh my fucking god–I don’t know how much longer I can stand this world. Who in the world gives a flying shit, whether the horn players are, in true musician style, using.

~Becky

Hank W.
“It says a student in vocational training can lose the right to study if he or she is incapable of working in the profession itself… Says nothing about drugs there. Says – if the tuba player gets asthma and can’t blow. Or the drummer has no rythm. Or the singer has no voice”

I agree. It’s just that it’s REALLY hard to lose that right to study… I happen to study music in Finland and I’ve never heard of ANYONE who has been kicked off from any school – except if one doesn’t study at all for some reason (maybe he’ll get kicked in let’s say, ten years). The only person I know who actually lost the right to study, is a voice student who lost the right to have voice lessons because she didn’t attend obligatory music history classes in five years. She will get the voice lessons back when she attends those history lessons – and meanwhile she can attend all the other studies.

For example if someone gets in to an accident and is unable to play his/her own instrument afterwards, they might even want to discuss whether the student wants to learn a new instrument or change the department or get into research or something. And I know a lot of musicians having drug/alcohol problems. But as long they do their job/homework/whatever, no one really cares. That’s why we HAVE so many musicians having drug/alcohol problems.

Of course I would rather listen to opera performed by drunks than be vaccinated by a person who has hallucinations.