The residents of Freetown Christiania, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, recently began to physically dismantle a part of its community where hash has been sold illegally for decades. According to recent reports, residents began removing the cobblestones on “Pusher Street” on April 6 to deter violence and illegal cannabis and hash sales.

Prior to April 6, residents began to ask for help from volunteers to pull up the cobblestone street. Anyone was welcome to participate, and could take home one cobblestone as a souvenir.

Removing cobblestones on Pusher Street was performed as a demonstration of the residents taking back their community and promising to rebuild. In doing this, they will be granted 14.3 million kroner (approximately $1.3 million USD) from the government to fund street renovation. According to AP News, two Christiania children were the first to lift cobblestones from Pusher Street.

“For more than 40 years, Christiania and the illegal sale of drugs out here has been a huge thorn in the side of the established society,” said Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard. “But now we have reached the point where the Christianians have also had enough of the [criminal] gangs.”

Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Hæstorp Andersen spoke with Reuters about the historic decision. “Pusher Street has to die in order for Christiania to live,” Andersen said. “The crime scene we have seen here has been so violent… we cannot have a Christiania that is dying out because people don’t dare to be here and where we see the local Christianites being threatened by greedy pushers and dealers.”

The future of Pusher Street will include “a new Christiania without the criminal hashish market,” according to a statement from Christiania public housing coordinator Mette Prag, who has called Christiania his home for 37 years.

Another resident who has lived in the enclave for 40 years expressed their interest in removing hash from Christiania’s future. “We don’t want the gangsters anymore. There might be some people selling hashish afterward, but it’s not going to be in the open,” said Hulda Mader.

Most locals are looking forward to Christiania’s new slate. “To me, Pusher Street is actually the least unique, right? It is what I associate with violence, gangs, murder, threats, and everything which are actually antonyms to what Christiania is,” said resident Mathilde Brandstrup.

The government funds will help the community install new water pipes and pavement, while buildings near Pusher Street will also receive renovations. While the overall goal is to transform Christiania into what AP News calls “an integrated part of the Danish capital area,” but will still retail the “free state” spirit that it has long been known for.

Christiania was first established in 1971 by hippies who occupied in former army barracks, and Denmark officials have allowed the unique settlement to remain independent, even though illegal cannabis sales in the area became known worldwide to curious tourists. Originally, residents who founded Christiania didn’t obtain permits to build houses, didn’t pay utility bills, and others could only move into the area if they were related to someone who was a resident. Residents received rights to their land in 2011, when the land (about 84 acres) was sold by the state to a foundation owned by Christianians. Now it’s home to 800 adults (25% of whom are over 60 years old) and 200 children.

Christiania was the focus of Denmark law enforcement starting in 2004, which led to an increase in police raids. While many residents took down their hash sales booths for a time, they soon returned.

However, an increase in violence and gang activity has also concerned both Denmark leaders as well as Christiania residents. In 2021, one individual was shot and killed at the entrance of Pusher Street, followed by another death in 2022 involved a hash seller.

Most recently in August 2023, two masked gunmen open fired within a Christiania building, killing one individual and injuring four others. Mayor Andersen spoke out against the event, and asked tourists to avoid the area. “The spiral of violence at Christiania is deeply worrying,” Andersen said. “The hundreds of thousands of visiting tourists and the many new foreign students who have just moved to Copenhagen to stay away and refrain from buying weed or other drugs at Pusher Street.”

Adult-use cannabis is illegal in Denmark, although medical cannabis is permitted through a limited pilot program that launched in March 2018.

The Danish Parliament’s Health Committee announced in September 2023 that it had destroyed an estimated 320,862 pounds of dried cannabis, all of which came from the medical cannabis program. The government explained that the destroyed product was either “discarded” or “faulty.”

The Denmark medical cannabis program produced a total of 4,656 pounds of medical cannabis in 2019, followed by 14,521 pounds in 2020, and 71,502 pounds in 2021.

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Copenhagen, Denmark’s autonomous neighborhood commune of Christiania (or Freetown Christiania) has tolerated soft drug use for decades on Pusher Street, its main market, but a recent shooting might complicate things for its open hash trade.

On Sept. 4, the mayor of Copenhagen on Monday urged foreign tourists not to buy cannabis in the city’s Christiania neighborhood after a man was killed. Instead of selling cannabis in a regulated retail model as seen in legal U.S. states, cannabis is sold from unregulated dealers like a street drug there. A “bloody feud” between the Hells Angels and Loyal to Family erupted in the culmination of turf wars over cannabis and drug trade. 

“The spiral of violence at Christiania is deeply worrying,” Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Hæstorp Andersen said. She called on “the hundreds of thousands of visiting tourists and the many new foreign students who have just moved to Copenhagen to stay away and refrain from buying weed or other drugs at Pusher Street.”

ABC News reported that on Aug. 26, two masked gunmen opened fire inside a building in Christiania, Copenhagen police spokesman Poul Kjeldsen told the media. One man, age 30, was killed in the shooting and four others were injured. As of Tuesday, one of those injured was in critical but stable condition, while the others had minor injuries.

On Friday, a 28-year-old man, affiliated with the Loyal To Family gang was arrested in relation to the shooting. The Hells Angels have been active in the area, taking advantage of the drug trade freedoms, since the ‘80s. 

Earlier this year, the mayor threatened to close Pusher Street’s drug trade if the 1,000 or so people living in the Christiania commune comply with her plan to reduce violence. (The neighborhood’s population fluctuates between 700-1,000.) Hæstorp Andersen told local paper Ekstra Bladet last May that growing violence has to end or she will shut down cannabis and drug trade in Christiania. The mayor’s warning, however, doesn’t seem to be working.

Christiania remains one of Copenhagen’s top tourist attractions, with major hippie appeal, and many of the visitors are from foreign countries, wanting to get a taste of tolerated hash trade. It’s the Danish Amsterdam in many senses. 

High Times writer Snake Blissken reported in 2017 that the going rate on Pusher Street is 100 kroner—about $15 USD—for 1.5 grams of hash and/or cannabis flower. That’s close to the common $10 per gram price for flower in some U.S. states. Most of the stalls were reported to have various forms of pre-rolls for sale. In that person’s experience, one stall tried to get 200 kroner for a 1.5 gram sack, before quickly backing down to the standard going price.

“It may seem innocent to buy weed for a festive night out but think about the fact that your money ends up in the pockets of criminal gangs who shoot in our streets and put innocent people in danger,” Hæstorp Andersen said.

One particular shooting in 2016 led to public outcry because it involved a police officer who was gravely wounded with a head shot. Before this, the entire nation had not seen a police shooting since 1995. Violence is particularly uncharacteristic of the country.

What is Christiania?

Christiania was transformed from a Naval base on the island of Amager in Copenhagen into a hippie commune when they began squatting in the former military barracks of Bådsmandsstræde in 1971.Squatters began taking upon a more serious anarchist agenda and gathered to establish their own laws, autonomous to the Danish government. On Sept. 16,1971, Christiania was declared to be free by Jacob Ludvigsen, a journalist and provo anarchist. You merely have to walk over bridges over Copenhagen’s canals to get there.

Christiania banned cars from the neighborhood, though there are now a few parking spots for a limited number of vehicles. You can also find alternative architecture, free from housing codes, such as a house made entirely of glass. The neighborhood was once peaceful, but violence has increased in recent years. In 2021, a man was shot and killed at the entrance to Pusher Street. Then last October, a man selling cannabis from booths on the same street was shot and killed. 

While Denmark is one of the most liberal places on the planet, implementing LGBTQ rights since 1933, cannabis is illegal. Christiania is another story, however, and the law is rarely, but occasionally enforced there. 

Per Denmark’s Euphoriants Substances Act—it is illegal to import, export, sell, purchase, deliver, receive, produce, and process cannabis in Denmark. While personal use is not illegal, as of 2016, with the passing of the Consolidated Act on Controlled Substances, possession of cannabis in Denmark is illegal. As with most European countries, hashish is a popular form of cannabis and it’s often mixed with tobacco.

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While open drug trade of cannabis, hash, and soft drugs is tolerated in Christiania, an autonomous region in Copenhagen, Denmark, that all could end if the area can’t clean up its act, the capital city’s mayor warned.

Copenhagen, Denmark Lord Mayor Sophie Hæstorp Andersen told local paper Ekstra Bladet that growing violence has to end or she will shut down cannabis and drug trade in Christiania.

The Guardian reports that Andersen threatened to close Pusher Street’s drug trade if the 1,000 or so people living in the Christiania commune comply with her plan.

Since the 1970s, Christiania or Freetown Christiania in the Christianshavn borough in Copenhagen has been the nation’s “Green Light” district. Think of it as mini Amsterdam, complete with comparable canals and architecture and open tolerance of soft drugs and cannabis. 

Bådsmandsstræde military base on the island of Amager was transformed into a commune in 1973 with an autonomous government. Hippies and anarchists established a Social Democratic government structure and made the area a permanent “social experiment.” The first thing you see when you enter Christiania is a mural of a fan leaf, as well as a fist smashing a hypodermic needle, signifying the area’s rule of no hard drugs. 

Since around 1980 or so, hash—Europe’s popular form of cannabis—has openly been sold on Pusher Street, which is why the area enforced a strict no photo rule. But organized crime sours the picture, and it’s not the utopia it used to be.

“The violence and crime around Pusher Street has now reached a level we neither can nor want to deal with,” Andersen told Ekstra Bladet. “In Copenhagen, I believe we must have room for Christiania. It is both skewed and alternative. It’s creative. But this harsh, organised violence must be written out of the future around Christiania.”

A 23-year-old man was shot and killed in Christiania on October 26, as a rash of violence was reported in the area. It reminds some about a grenade attack in 2009.  “We are afraid that the situation will develop into a gang war in Christiania,” the area’s spokeswoman Hulda Mader said. But keep in mind that Copenhagen at large is one of the safest cities in the world, and that crime is comparably lower than other parts of the world, adding to the reason they don’t want crime entering the picture.

Andersen warned that she’s not playing games anymore. “That is why my message is also that if the Christianites make it clear that they are ready to close Pusher Street and replace it with something else then we in the municipality of Copenhagen are ready to support putting together a plan to find out what should happen to the street.”

After the incident last October, Christiania’s hash trade moved from its original spot on Pusher Street up to near the area’s main entrance. “Enough is enough,” Mader said. “We have disclaimed responsibility for what goes on in Pusher Street. It is not something that we, as private individuals, can oppose. Now there have been repeated episodes of violence, and we simply think that it has become too dangerous for us.”

Christiania is currently run by the Foundation Fristaden Christiania, while the Housing and Social Affairs Agency owns the ramparts and runs the state’s Christiania Secretariat.

A joint dialogue will soon take place between the Foundation Fristaden Christiania, Copenhagen Municipality, Copenhagen Police, the Housing and Social Affairs Agency, and the Castles and Culture Agency. All groups meet regularly. The Technical and Environmental Management in the Municipality of Copenhagen will also work together with the Foundation Fristaden Christiania on the future public housing in Christiania.

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