Report from Copenhagen
Copenhagen I Denmark around 1500 people had a big Smoke In in Christiania(newspapers write 1000-2000).
The police chose NOT to arrest any of the smokers on this day,
which they usually do in Denmark nowadays.
After the smoke in we had a big march through the city.
In the Town-hall Square we had speaches for legalizing and another smoke-in.
Then we went to the parliament where we had more speaches,
more joints and a lot of danish band played in the sun.
There was a reason that we started the march with a smoke in in Christiania...
Christiania is a liberated space in Copehagen;
an old military area that was liberated in 1971 by the hippies.
Today over 1000 people live there and in the Christiania society it's allways
been legal to smoke a joint. Until now.
The right-wing government that got control over DK in 2001 forced the locals to close
down the world famous Pusher Street in 2003.
Since that a lot of illegal coffee-shops haas opened all over the city.
Now the sale of marijuana is connected with sale of hard drugs and connected
to the criminal environment in general.
The Biker's (HA, Bandidos etc) are now fighting against the second generation immigrants.
On april 21 a young man was shot in Christiania.
Later he died and the murder was connected to the rivalry about sale of marijuana.
Since that the police have been showing zero-tolerance to the smokers and
are every day they arresting several smokers in Christiania,
who haven't done anything criminal, but smoking a joint.
In DK almost one third of all youngsters have tried to smoke weed.
We are a lot of smokers in DK who now says STOP. The struggle continues.
On may 24 marijuana has been legalized for 50 years.
We are planning another giant smoke in in Christiania.
Written by Jeppe Rohde, from the Danish Commitee for Legalizing Marijuana