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Closure of Copenhagen’s Pusher Street ‘has not caused spread’ of drug sales

The closure of the Pusher Street market in Copenhagen’s hippy enclave Christiania earlier this month has not resulted in drugs sales spreading to other parts of the city, police say. Pusher Street was known for its illicit cannabis market.

Published: 22 April 2024 15:03 CEST

Closure of Copenhagen’s Pusher Street 'has not caused spread' of drug sales

Pusher Street just prior to excavation on April 6th. Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

In an internal memo sent within Copenhagen’s city administration, seen by local media TV2 Kosmopol, police say they have not seen increased drug sales in other locations following Pusher Street’s closure.

Pusher Street was officially closed on April 6th as Christiania residents and others symbolically ripped up the paving under the former site of the market. The memo is dated April 19th, according to the report.

The memo additionally states that police are monitoring activity in Christiania, outlying neighbourhood Christianshavn and in other parts on Copenhagen.

Following the April 6th closure, police have not registered “a significant spread of cannabis sales to other parts of Christiania” while several potential buyers have left the area without completing a purchase, police said.

READ ALSO: Why Denmark’s hippy Christiania is closing down its open drug market

Copenhagen Police have, however, received a small number of reports of cannabis sales on nearby square Christianshavns Torv.

“Overall, the assessment is that spread is limited,” the memo states.

Pusher Street was dug up on April 6th as part of a municipal restoration project that has been agreed for the area.

The renovation, which will include upgrading the locality’s sewage system, is expected to take around ten weeks. The finished street surface will include new and old cobblestones as well as a mosaic.

Member comments

Anonymous - 23 April 2024 at 04:15 CEST

So in only two weeks they have determined that drug sales have not increased in other areas?
I may be wrong here but the closing of ‘Pusher Street’ was well puplicised prior to closing. I think it is reasonable to assume that armed with that knowledge, your average user would prepare by buying extra in advance to tide them over until they found a new source. Coming to a conclusion in only two weeks is silly.
Give us a report 6-12 months from now to be meaningful.

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Where Malmö plans to place its first three Copenhagen Metro stops

Malmö and Copenhagen have been pushing for an Öresund Metro linking the two cities since at least 2011, but so far neither the Swedish government nor the Danish one have committed to stumping up their share of the roughly 30 billion Danish kroner (47 billion Swedish kronor, €4 billion) required.

Malmö hopes the Swedish government will take a decision on the project this autumn, and in preparation, the city’s planning board last Thursday took a decision on where the first three stops of the Öresund Metro should be placed.

They have selected Fullriggaren (currently a bus stop at the outermost tip of the city’s Västra Hamnen district), Stora Varvsgatan, in the centre of Västra Hamnen, and Malmö’s Central Station, as the locations of the first three stops, after which the idea is to extend the metro into the city.

Stefana Hoti, the Green Party councillor who chairs the planning committee, said that the new Fehmarn Belt connection between the Danish island of Lolland and Germany, which is expected to come into use in 2029, will increase the number of freight trains travelling through Copenhagen into Sweden making it necessary to build a new route for passengers.

Part of the cost, she said, could come from tolls levied on car and rail traffic over the existing Öresund Bridge, which will soon no longer need to be used to pay off loans taken to build the bridge more than 20 years ago.

“The bridge will be paid off in the near future. Then the tolls can be used to finance infrastructure that strengthens the entire country and creates space for more freight trains on the bridge,” Hoti told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

According to planning documents given out by the city planning authorities, the stop at Fullrigagaren would be called Galeonen and would be roughly, the one at Stora Varvsgatan will be called Masttorget, and the third stop would be called Malmö Central.

Source: Malmö Kommun

After Fullriggaren the next stop would be at Lergravsparken in the Amagerbro neighbourhood, which connects with the current M2 line, after which the there will be four new stops on the way to Copenhagen Central, including DR Byen on the current M1 line.

The hope is that the Öresund Metro will reduce the journey time between Copenhagen Central and Malmö Central from 40 minutes to 25 minutes.

Source: Oresunds Metro

But that’s not all. Excavating a tunnel between Malmö and Copenhagen will produce large amounts of earth, which the architect firm Arkitema has proposed should be used to extend Malmö’s Västra Hamnen district out into the sea, creating a new coastal district called Galeonen, meaning “The Galleon”, centred on the Fullriggaren Metro stop.

This project is similar to the Lynetteholm project in Copenhagen, which will use earth excavated for the Copenhagen Metro extension to build a peninsular in front of Copenhagen Harbour, providing housing and protecting the city from rising sea levels.

Rather than producing a sea wall to protect the new area from rising sea levels, Arkitema and its partner, the Danish engineering firm COWI, have proposed a new coastal wetland area.

“Instead of building a wall, we extended the land out into the sea. Then a green area is formed which is allowed to flood, and over time it will become a valuable environment, partly as a green area for Malmö residents, partly because of the rich biodiversity that will be created there,” Johanna Wadhstorp, an architect for Arkitema based in Stockholm, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

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