Hippie oasis to tear up drug hub
The inhabitants of Copenhagen’s freewheeling Chris- tiania neighbourhood plan to dig up the aptly named Pusher Street, in their latest attempt to stop illegal hashish sales which have led to deadly gang turf wars and sometimes violent confrontations with the police.
Residents of the hippie enclave are calling for volun- teers to help dig up the street on April 6, the Berlingske newspaper wrote Thursday. All are welcome, and par- ticipants can take home one of its cobblestones as a souvenir.
It is yet unclear what will replace the street.
The residents are fighting to preserve Christiania’s reputation as a “free-wheeling society” made up of political idealists and aging hippies. For years, hash has been sold openly in Christiania from roadside stalls, among buildings painted in psychedelic colours. But inhabitants say that feuding gangs, not them, control the trade and the survival of their community hinges on ending it.
The neighbourhood has been a world apart from the rest of Copenhagen since 1973, when hippies squatted at a derelict naval base and set up a community ded- icated to the flower-power ideals popular at the time: free cannabis, limited government influence, no cars and no police.
After more than four decades of locking horns with authorities, they were given control over their homes when the state sold the 84-acre enclave for 85.4 million kroner ($16.9 million) to a foundation owned by its inhabitants. There are nearly 700 adults and about 150 children living in the community today, and it’s one of the Danish capital’s biggest tourist attractions.
The “Christianites” have made several attempts to close the hashish market in the roughly 100-metre- long street. Police say the trade, worth millions, is controlled by the Hells Angels and the outlawed Loyal to Family.
Authorities tolerated hashish sales in Christiania un- til 2004, when police started to crack down. To pre- empt police raids, residents took down hash booths, but trading soon came back. Last year, they brought heavy machinery to tear down the market but masked men stopped them.
In the past month, Christiania has worked with local authorities on a plan that includes ending the drug trade and replacing it with other activities.
The social and housing ministry said that it was “an important prerequisite to get rid of the organized hashish trade” before Christiania can get 14.3 million kroner ($2.8 million) earmarked for the work.