Europe: Hash Crackdown in Copenhagen's Christiania Didn't Work

In a classic example of the unintended consequences of prohibitionist drug policies, the Copenhagen Post reported Thursday that six years after the conservative Danish government began its crackdown on Christiania's famous Pusher Street, the hash trade not only still exists, but has spread throughout Copenhagen and has gotten harder-edged.

Christiania is a neighborhood in Copenhagen that sits on the grounds of a former military base taken over by young radicals back in the 1970s. Over the decades, Christiania has fought to maintain its autonomy and self-rule, and has remained a bastion of counterculture values. But it is under unceasing assault by the Danish government. Part of that assault has been the crackdown on Pusher Street, where soft drug sales were long tolerated by the Christiania community, and where, according to the Post, they still take place, albeit in a more subterranean fashion.

"If the goal was to stop the trafficking of hashish in Christiania, then it has absolutely not succeeded," Peter Ibsen, president of the Police Officers Federation, told MetroXpress newspaper. "I think the best thing you can say is that the booths are gone in Pusher Street. But hash is still being sold as much as it ever was."

"Anybody can see that Pusher Street is alive and functioning," confirmed Kirsten Larsen, a Christiania resident and spokesperson. "I'd even say the trade is growing because there may not be enough funding available for the same massive police actions that began in 2004," she said.

But the atmosphere has changed for the worse, Larsen said. "Eyes nervously follow you around now," she said. "But that's because the police raids have left only the hardest criminals controlling the trade. And that inevitably means that we have to fight internally to keep the harder drugs out of Christiania."

Police concede that not only has their crackdown not stopped hash sales, it has benefited the hardest dealers, some with gang connections. Gang violence related to the trade in prohibited drugs has been on the increase.

While the conservative government continues to support the crackdown, politicians on the left said that things were better when the police left Christiania alone. There needs to be a new approach they said.

"So far a ban and a massive police operation have not produced any results," said Karina Lorentzen, legal spokeswoman for the Socialist People's Party. "We simply have to study the situation more thoroughly so we can get some better ideas of how we deal with marijuana trafficking and the increasing misuse of hash."

The primary accomplishment of the crackdown has been to spread the hash trade throughout Copenhagen, Lorentzen added. She has proposed the government create a hash commission to study the issue.