In Denmark, cannabis stalls have disappeared from the libertarian enclave of Christiania

Pusher Street is over: in Denmark, the residents of Christiania demolished the main street of this former hippie paradise nestled on Saturday. in the heart of Copenhagen, where cannabis was over the counter.

At the signal “we are closing Pusher Street and opening Christiania”, the residents, called Christians, and their guests, including the mayor of Copenhagen and the Minister of Justice, took off the cobblestones under the spring sun.

“Digging up the street and turning it into a construction site will inevitably make the sale very difficult. But this is only the beginning,” said Sophie Haestorp Andersen, mayor of Copenhagen.

The police, for their part, removed all the cannabis sales points that were set up in the street.

Residents of the Christiania district unpave Pusher Street, the main artery of this former hippie paradise nestled in the heart of Copenhagen, where cannabis was freely sold, on March 6, 2024 © Ritzau Scanpix – Ida Marie Odgaard

At the beginning of the afternoon, everyone could leave a piece of stone in their hand. “I came for a cobblestone. It’s a memory of Christiania, of what it was and what it is no longer,” Adam Hovgaard, a 23-year-old from Copenhagen, explained to AFP.

The process of closing Pusher Street began at the end of August, after a new outbreak of violence, an assassination, had definitively shattered the image of a somewhat crazy but peaceful community.

This assassination, the fourth in three years, led Christians to decide that the sale of drugs had to stop.

Pusher Street “has deteriorated into a really not nice place”, the dealers “fight among themselves, against people, they are violent”, lamented Hulda Mader, spokesperson for the Christianites.

Previously, the police had several times destroyed the stalls, which had always resurfaced due to lack of support from residents.

– Involvement of residents –

Now, the majority of the neighborhood's thousand or so residents support change.

“Their commitment is crucial,” stressed the mayor of Copenhagen. “This is the first time that they have united and taken a stand against crime and rampant insecurity in their neighborhood.”

In 1971, hippies had created the “free city of Christiania” in a former abandoned barracks to create a commune, which, according to its statutes, “belongs to everyone and to no one” and where every decision is, still today, taken collegially.

Residents of the Christiania district unpave Pusher Street, the main artery of this former hippie paradise nestled in the heart of Copenhagen, where cannabis was freely sold, on March 6, 2024 © Ritzau Scanpix – Ida Marie Odgaard

In this 34-hectare waterfront enclave, the sale and consumption of cannabis is illegal but tolerated, which has led to drug trafficking and the emergence of gangs.< /p>

“Five, ten years ago, (the sellers) were primarily locals, but now gangs manage this drug market,” said a spokesperson of the police, Simon Hansen.

“For too long, we have accepted that drug dealers sell weed and drugs like freshly picked strawberries and peas to tourists and Copenhagen residents alike,” lamented the mayor.

– “New chapter” –

In 2023, the police, who do not give figures on the quantities of drugs seized, arrested some 900 people linked to drug trafficking in the neighborhood.

At the beginning of August, for a day, the Christians blocked access to the free city for non-residents , visited by more than half a million tourists each year, “in the hope of freeing Christiania from the tyranny of the gangs”.

Residents of the Christiania district unpave Pusher Street, the main artery of this former hippie paradise nestled in the heart of Copenhagen, where cannabis was freely sold, on March 6, 2024 © Ritzau Scanpix – Ida Marie Odgaard

With this “new chapter”, they intend to “clean up” the street, “make it pretty”, said Ms. Mader, who lives in a large house that she shares with her son and his family.

“We are going to repaint, rebuild the buildings,” she said. “We want to be associated with art, culture, theater, like it was before. A really nice place where people come to relax.”

Because Christiania is also an island of greenery, where you can hear the birds chirping along the path of the old ramparts.

With the hoped-for end of drug trafficking, the community wants to build on this postcard image and its artistic vitality. Concerts in particular are legion.

She must also undertake to build housing for some 300 new arrivals, a project whose terms have not yet been decided but with which she hopes to attract families with children.

Currently, 25% of Christiania's population is over 60.

All rights of reproduction and representation reserved. © (2024) Agence France-Presse