Danish Government Rejects Legal Cannabis Proposal

For some months there have been rumors that Copenhagen might be the next city in Europe where cannabis would be legalized. But last weekend the Justice Ministry officially turned down Copenhagen City Council’s request to start an experiment with legalizing cannabis in the city that has a population of about 1.2 million. At this moment the sale, consumption and cultivation of cannabis is strictly illegal in Denmark, but for many years already there is a huge black market for cannabis.

The City Council had voted in 2011 to investigate the best ways to decriminalize the drug and according to a big part of the City Council it would be better for everybody to take control over the trade in cannabis. Several similar proposals have been made in the last decade but every time so far they have been shot down by the National government. Also this time the rejection was received with disappointment by the City Council as they believe that legalization is the only solution to get rid of the crime created by the current drug trade situation in Copenhagen. At the moment an estimated 1.5 billion kroner is being generated by the illegal cannabis market and some say that it is also the root cause of the high level of gun crime in the city. The proposal was initiated by the SocialistiskFolkepartiof the city council and has received the support of 80% of the city council. It seems that the proposal being rejected is not the end of the road to decriminalization in Copenhagen. “Cannabis is here to stay”, said Peter Thiele, spokesperson for the Socialistisk Folkeparti on the City Council.“We owe it to Christiania to allow it to again become a home for alternative thinking, solidarity and creativity – not a home for psychopaths that brutalize parking wardens and earn billions on cannabis sales.”