“Pusher Street” must close. In Denmark, Christiania, a district of Copenhagen, a former paradise for hippies, called on authorities on Sunday for help to close this main artery and hub of cannabis trafficking, after a new fatal shooting.
“Tonight, August 27, the community of Christiania has decided that ‘Pusher Street’ should be closed,” according to a statement released Sunday night by the community. “Christianites have neither the resources nor the power to close Pusher Street and keep it closed,” the statement said.
A city that “belongs to everyone and no one”
In 1971, hippies had created the “free city of Christiania” in an old abandoned barracks to create a commune, in his own words, “which belongs to everyone and no one” and where every decision is made collectively.
In this small enclave, the sale and consumption of cannabis are illegal but tolerated, which leads to abuses with drug trafficking and the appearance of gangs. On Saturday, a 30-year-old man linked to organized crime was shot dead in the street. This is the fourth shooting assassination linked to drug trafficking since 2020 around Pusher Street.
“Freeing Christiania from gang tyranny”
The approximately 900 inhabitants of this 34-hectare enclave in the heart of Copenhagen now want to put an end to this trafficking and are calling for state regulation of the cannabis market. In early August, for a day, residents blocked non-residents access to the “free city”, visited by more than half a million tourists each year, “in the hope of freeing Christiania from tyranny gangs”.
Asked by TV2 television, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said he wanted to “achieve lasting change”. A working group bringing together representatives of the inhabitants, the police, the municipality of Copenhagen and the State is considering the implementation of a solution, he added.