01x06 - Episode 6

[bunniefuu]

[quiet dramatic music playing]

[Mathilde] It's night,

I'm looking out

of my bathroom window, I can't sleep.

MATHILDE

CHRISTIANITE

My daughter woke me up

and she just went back to bed.

I'm standing there,

looking out, alone in the room.

All of a sudden, I hear two loud bangs.

[distant blasts]

I look down,

and I see someone running away.

Everything goes quiet.

I'm going back and forth with myself,

"Were those fireworks or g*nshots?"

Then people start screaming.

[distant screaming]

What started out as an idealistic hippie

dream, ended in a brutal nightmare.

[The Wholesaler] If there's demand

for something and there's money to make,

people like me

will swoop in and capitalize.

[Larsen] On one side are the drug dealers,

On the other,

you have the combat-ready cops.

When we strike, we follow through.

[faint screaming]

[Larsen] And in the middle

are the Christianites.

SHAME

I felt like a hostage caught

between drug dealers and cops.

[man] What the hell are you doing?

They wanted to hurt each other.

It was It was w*r.

We thought, "f*ck them."

I've been in situations thinking,

"You're dead, you won't survive."

We got to the point

that we had always feared.

[g*n blast]

Someone was shot dead on Pusher Street.

That k*lling was the last straw in the

decades of fighting over Pusher Street.

g*ng w*r PUSHER STREE

[Norton] After the COVID restrictions

were lifted,

Pusher Street came back to life.

CARSTEN NORTON

AUTHOR & JORNALIS

But this incarnation was different.

Now, the street was controlled

by criminals and gangs.

Stall tenders started wearing masks

to conceal their identities.

It created an uneasy atmosphere.

In the past,

stalls were almost permanent fixtures.

Now, the vendors had adapted and their

stalls became extremely portable.

The dealers were well aware that the

police could arrive at a moment's notice.

They started using panic bags

or booth cloths

to stay a step ahead of the police.

These were cloths used

to display their wares.

At the pull of a string,

it's all packed up.

The shop is gone in an instant.

This was a new, very mobile,

very guerrilla version of Pusher Street

that returned in the early years

after the pandemic.

[Lykke] Things just keep escalating

and getting worse and worse.

The g*ng presence is

growing more visible by the day

BUY CANNABIS HERE, BUY COCAINE

AT COPENHAGEN POLICE

and the g*ng activity keeps building,

and the competition

between the different gangs

becomes much more apparent.

Eventually, many of the Christianites

from Pusher Street

felt that they were no longer in control

of anything in their own neighborhood.

OLE LYKKE

CHRISTIANITE

[Norton] There was this emerging pattern

of new criminal factions

elbowing their way in

and pushing out enfranchised dealers

and Christianites alike,

Now it was difficult to enforce the rules

of the street from years past.

Some of the stalls

were being shared during the day.

Sometimes people from two different

groups would sell from a single stall.

There's a huge surplus of vendors

and only room for so many stalls.

This created a whole new

unstructured market

and a volatile,

unsafe dynamic took hold.

It increased friction

between the factions,

which inevitably led

to incidents of extreme violence.

[Bille] The old infrastructure

that we had for keeping people in line

was completely gone.

You'd say,

"Hey, that's unacceptable. Get out.

KARL BILLE

ARTIST & MUSICIAN

You're getting a yogurt shower

if you don't start acting right."

Listen, I'm not a big believer

in public humiliation,

but sometimes it worked.

If someone's acting psychotic

and acting out,

well then, you get yogurt

dumped on your head.

And everyone would just start laughing.

Then they'd be shown the door.

That was the kind

of small town justice in the old days.

All of a sudden, "Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!"

So violent. Just horrendous.

MAN SHOT AND k*lled

IN CHRISTIANIA

The perpetrator is still at large after

a 22-year-old man was shot and k*lled

in an attack at the entrance

to Pusher Street in Christiania.

[Norton] On July third, 2021,

a group of young men were hanging out

near some stalls on Pusher Street.

Unbeknownst to them,

they were being watched,

and at some point,

one of them stood up and left.

Not too long after, a 22-year-old

Christianite joined the group

and took the vacant seat.

The perpetrators who were waiting nearby,

chose that moment to strike.

An armed assailant

approached the group of young men,

- took aim, and fired his weapon.

- [g*nf*re]

The 22-year-old Christianite

who had taken that empty seat

was shot in the head and k*lled.

[moody dramatic music playing]

That moment changed everything.

That was when we reached the point

that we had always feared.

Someone had been shot dead

on Pusher Street.

[distant scream]

I hear a man screaming in agony.

He sounds completely broken.

That left a big impact on me, and at that

moment I didn't know what happened.

I can hear him screaming and screaming.

I remember thinking, "Why isn't anyone

helping him? Where's the ambulance?"

It feels like an eternity

before the paramedics get there.

I don't know who to call

to ask what happened.

And I have no clue who's down there,

since I don't have

any more contacts in the street.

I just have to stand there,

um and wait to hear more.

Later on, they announced

it was Svend, who was k*lled.

[Carlo] I was at a wedding in Stockholm,

and my little brother texts me

CARLO

CHRISTIANITE

"I think our buddy's brother is dead."

He couldn't get a hold of his friend,

so I call my friend,

who confirms that his little brother

was shot and k*lled.

He asked if we could come by,

but you know, we were still in Sweden.

It was surreal. And we Yeah.

That moment is something

that'll always stick with me.

It was really

tragic that it came to this.

[Mathilde] It was such a shock.

People were understandably

very emotional.

Not only was this someone who was k*lled

so young and so suddenly,

but he is also from a large family and was

a born and raised Christiania native.

Suddenly, this market had become

so brutal and so violent

that one of Christiania's own citizens

was shot dead in his hometown.

It's absolutely awful.

Um, no one could understand

how it happened

because he was such a sweet boy.

What could he have done? It doesn't

make sense, it doesn't add up.

Who did he get in trouble with?

Why did this happen to him, of all people?

Everybody thinks it must be a mistake,

which doesn't make it any less tragic.

[Norton] When the police

began their investigation

and started piecing together the events

leading up to the sh**ting,

they quickly arrived at a theory

that the 22-year-old Christianite

wasn't the intended target

of the sh**ting after all.

The perpetrator had watched the group

and identified somebody

who had been sitting

on that chair previously,

and it was by complete accident

that that 22-year-old Christianite

was ultimately sitting in that spot

at the time of the sh**ting.

It hard to understand how they could

be so reckless about taking a life.

That's all it was to them.

Just some street kid.

[Carlo] He was just in the wrong place.

And it just makes you think like

"Damn, how crazy can it get?"

[Bille] I think I heard about it

in the news like most people did.

Then I stepped outside, and

A bunch of us got together

and arranged a memorial service of sorts.

A demonstration

that Christiania wasn't afraid.

A lot of us came together

to share our sympathy and our grief.

That's another thing Christiania

has always been good at: funerals.

Christiania has

the most beautiful funerals.

[moody dramatic music continues]

I have never been to such

a big funeral as that one.

It was kind of crazy, actually.

Yeah, um

It was a really beautiful service,

but it was also very sad.

He was so young.

I remember there were

a lot of people observing a moment

of silence in the street.

There were a lot of us just standing

quietly together.

It reminds you

how wonderful people can be, too.

No matter how different.

I saw people I knew

from all walks of life.

People who had been criminal, violent.

People who were stubborn activists,

people who were artists.

They all came together in solidarity.

"We won't put up with this.

We have to be here for each other."

It was a powerful feeling.

It seemed like it was a kind

of a wake-up call for Christiania.

We thought, "Shut it down. That's it."

[ominous music playing]

[Lykke] We held our usual community

meeting on violence,

to discuss how it's worse than

anything we had experienced before.

The mood in the room was heavy

and people felt strongly opposed

to Pusher Street.

But there was also a lot of people

who thought that this

was an isolated incident,

and that it didn't call for

a collective community punishment.

Some felt that those

who had nothing to do with it

should not be punished for it.

[Mathilde] The group of people

in favor of keeping the street open,

stuck with the narrative that if we were

to shut down Pusher Street,

it would be Armageddon.

There would only be more killings

and that all of Copenhagen

would run red with blood.

They were saying "Are you stupid?

Don't you get how the scene works?"

But a lot of people are on the fence

listening to all this, thinking,

"Okay, this is really not good."

The message we were getting from people

who know about this world

were saying that this

is the lesser of two evils

and changing things

will only make it worse.

At that point, when Svend was k*lled,

I arrived at the conclusion

that it couldn't get any worse.

I thought, I am living next door

to dangerous people,

there are stabbings and bombings.

People are getting beaten up

and having their teeth knocked out.

I can't step out of my front door

without worrying about what I might see.

For me, it can't get any worse.

I'm right at the edge.

I'm close to having to leave Christiania.

But moving and tearing up my entire

network, my family, my job,

it was just too overwhelming to even think

about under the emotional strain

of everything I would see and hear.

I was paralyzed,

I felt paralyzed by the situation.

And I felt betrayed

by many Christianites.

I thought,

"Why do you keep defending this?"

When Svend died, I started to sense

there was a different vibe of,

"This cannot go on.

Enough is enough."

[Carlo] That's when I started to think,

"Okay then, why

why should we waste more time

trying to fix this?"

The rest of Christiania had given up,

and the police were once again

cracking down.

[officer] You're under arrest.

It just went on and on,

in a vicious cycle.

There were more incidents happening

every so often,

and the violence just kept escalating.

Some Christianites start an initiative

they call "Enough is enough."

It's a grassroots movement whose goal

is to close the cannabis market.

It also stands in opposition

to the consensus democracy

that governs the community meetings

in which motions can only be passed

through a unanimous vote.

"Enough is enough" is of the opinion

that there are a few Christianites,

who may have a financial interest

in the cannabis trade,

and are blocking the decisions

to close down Pusher Street.

g*ng-FREE HASH

[Mathilde] I was approached

by another Christianite

who agrees that we have to do something.

LEGALIZE

MONEY IN THE TREASURY

We have to hold a new kind of meeting.

The community meetings

keep ending the same way.

We will never unanimously agree

on effecting change in Pusher Street

as long as those who have

their finger in the cookie jar

will do everything in their power

to preserve the status quo.

We decide to try meeting somewhere

we can talk without fear,

and hear what the silent majority

of attendees

at the community meetings

think we should do.

I remember a big group of us got together

and sat in a circle on a lawn.

It was a beautiful day,

and we were just sitting there.

There's no talk of a plan yet,

but there's this sense

like we all know that every one

of us has had enough.

I finally just said, "I'm scared.

I don't think I can keep living here."

I then started to look over my shoulder

to see if anybody

outside the meeting had heard me.

You couldn't ever say stuff like that

anywhere else,

it wasn't acceptable

to feel that way about Christiania.

I remember getting emotional

because that was the first time I realized

just how many us, including myself,

had grown up in this

this culture of silence

where you weren't permitted to say how

you really felt and what you thought.

After that moment, it turned out

there were a lot of us

who thought that what has been

happening out there is wrong.

We don't want Pusher Street to continue.

The cannabis market only brings violence

and crime to our community,

and we are all in agreement that

we need to create a manifesto.

People are able to express how they

really feel just by signing their name.

It didn't take long before the list

of names was as long as the manifesto.

The list just keeps growing and growing.

The manifesto basically said,

"We don't accept living under threat

where people are being beaten and k*lled.

We won't live like this."

[intriguing music playing]

[Lykke] The petition got 200 signatures.

Creating a petition like that was

an entirely new concept in Christiania.

The next Sunday community meeting

ended up being extremely long.

There There was a lot

of pressure during that meeting

because we needed to come

to a unanimous vote,

but it was obvious with everyone present,

that we were never

going to reach a consensus.

So we moved on and tried to find

something that we could agree on.

We discussed legalization

as the only solution.

But from then on, it was clear

that this was an issue we disagreed on.

Then, just a few months later,

there's another m*rder.

In October 2022,

a young man was tending a cannabis stall.

There's a fairly long line

of people in front of the stall

waiting to make their purchases.

Eventually, a customer

makes his way to the front of the line,

pulls out a g*n,

and shoots the person in the stall.

[echoing g*nf*re]

It's another young man,

22 years old who was shot.

[Tuxen] It was fall in the evening.

I happen to run into the rapper

Raske Penge hanging near the bikes.

KLAUS TUXEN - ACTIVIS

& FOUNDER OF HEMP PARTY

We're just chatting for a bit,

and then we hear g*nshots.

[g*nf*re]

People start running away.

The guy who was shot walks over to us.

He looks at us, face white,

and his eyes are wide,

and he just says, "I want to go home."

The crowd groups up around him.

There's a paramedic there and he says

to the guy, "You've been shot. Lie down."

He lies down

and starts shaking uncontrollably.

- [g*nf*re]

- [people screaming]

[Kluck] I was at Nemoland.

A bunch of people come running.

TONNY KLUCK

FORMER DRUG DEALER

I run as fast as I can up the street,

past the Community Kitchen.

People are pointing.

"There's a guy in Pusher Street."

I'm thinking, "This doesn't sound good."

There's this Christianite I recognize

there who works in the ambulance service.

The paramedic is with him,

he's trying to resuscitate him.

Then he looks up, "He's gone, he's gone."

We were like, "No way."

It was like something out of a movie.

My friend and I talked about how

how surreal it was.

It was like something

out of an American gangster movie.

[Kluck] It was too late.

He died there in Pusher Street.

- [interviewer] How does that feel?

- Unpleasant.

I get choked up, thinking about it.

[Mathilde] By now, I've seen my fair share

of violence and m*rder,

but I just remember my boyfriend

and I looking at each other.

It was a g*nsh*t.

We don't say a word about it

because the kids are right there.

Once we put the kids to bed, I

I completely broke down.

I feel stuck living with it everyday,

and I don't want

to be trapped by it anymore.

[journalist] Is there a man hunt going on?

- Not at this time.

- [journalist] Why not?

We have no leads at this time.

[Bille] The "Enough is enough"

group came in and said,

"Enough is enough!

We're peace-loving people

and we're done with the cannabis."

Another group of Christianites

is there, like,

"What are you even talking about?"

That was the aftermath.

There was a huge split in opinion.

A lot of people have beef with each other

and miss the old Pusher Street.

I get that.

Those were certainly happier times.

You can't just flip a switch

and have things go back

to the way they were before,

when everyone was getting along,

before there were cops all over the place.

It was a more accommodating time,

politically, in Denmark.

[Mathilde] There was a shift happening

for many people internally.

The same one I'd been feeling.

There was finally an open dialogue

about how maybe there shouldn't

be a hash market in Christiania.

It was a growing group of us

who thought that the time had come

to actually do something.

Volunteers were handing out fliers

at the main entrance

around the clock,

urging tourists and customers

to boycott the market

and buy their cannabis somewhere else.

Posters were put up all over the place.

Letters and opinions were printed

in Christiania's local newspaper.

"Enough is enough" began, along

with other organizations in Christiania,

to organize spontaneous shutdowns

of Pusher Street.

At one point, they put into place shipping

containers and concrete blocks

on either end of the street,

making it impossible to enter.

They spray painted

on the barricades the message

that if you wanted to help Christiania,

you needed to go elsewhere

to buy your drugs,

because Pusher Street is out of control.

GET YOUR CANNABIS ELSEWHERE

FREE CHRISTIANIA

[Mathilde] A lot of people started

receiving threats

for publicly supporting

the closing of Pusher Street.

The longer it went on, the more intense

and dangerous the threats would get.

People were afraid

and pulled their names off the manifesto

because it was getting so volatile.

They felt like it was safer

before we started.

[Larsen] The "Enough is enough" coalition

is struggling to effect change,

so Pusher Street returns

to the status quo.

Drug sales continue, and a blind eye

is turned to the rise in violence.

Tensions between bikers

and other gangs rise in Christiania.

In 2023, the worsening conflicts

come to a head,

and the stall "Best and Cheapest"

is the scene of a sh**ting.

[Lykke] New people affiliated

with the Loyal to Familia show up.

There's a group of them,

and people notice them when they arrive.

"What are they here for?

They're here to do something."

They go to Stjerneskibet.

There's a Hells Angels stall just outside.

Someone's working the stall,

and they're here for him.

[g*n c*ck]

They sh**t him.

[g*nf*re]

He runs into Stjerneskibet

and they're right behind him.

[g*nf*re]

They fire again and keep sh**ting.

[dramatic music playing]

Four other people are hit in the attack.

[g*nf*re]

One is a Christianite who is shot five

times, including once in the neck.

[Mathilde] My family and I

had all just moved

into a lovely home in Christiania.

It's not far from the market,

A few hundred meters.

I'm home, I hear the shots,

and I look over at my boyfriend,

and he nods at me.

"Yep, not fireworks, g*nshots."

People start screaming and running.

[g*nf*re]

[Carlo] When I heard that people

came in on bicycles with g*ns

I started running because my mom

was out with my son at Grønne Hal.

I was really nervous.

My son had just turned three.

I couldn't

exactly be sure where it was happening.

I'd never felt adrenaline like that.

I mean, you just spring into action.

I jump on my bike, and just

He's so excited he goes,

"Dad Fireworks, I heard fireworks."

And I'm just like, "Phew."

You know, once you become a parent,

you suddenly have so much more to lose.

It's a whole other type of nervous.

You're a different person

when you're a dad.

[moody music playing]

[Mathilde] I've seen so many tragedies.

At this point it almost feels normal.

As far as I remember,

it's daytime or early evening.

I got word right away

that my neighbor Ali had been shot.

I was so worried about her.

The one at Stjerneskibet was bad.

I knew one of the victims.

He was shot many times.

A m*rder that affects innocent people,

people who have been

in Christiania forever,

and even a minority, Greenlanders,

with their own sacred place

The fact that these new gangs

can't even respect

their house,

it was beyond disrespectful, beyond wrong.

The Greenlanders have always held

such a dear place in this community.

I mean, it just goes to show

just how callous it all really is.

[Norton] The k*lling that occurred

at Stjerneskibet was the straw

that ultimately broke the camel's back.

It was the third k*lling

in as many years.

They've seen the accidental k*lling

of a born and raised Christianite.

They've seen the targeted sh**ting of a

stranger working behind a cannabis stall,

k*lled in what appears

to be an assassination.

[g*nf*re]

Now, an individual

who is known to have ties

with the Hells Angels biker g*ng

was k*lled at Stjerneskibet.

Multiple bystanders and another

Christianite are injured in the attack.

After this m*rder in August 2023,

supporters of the Pusher Street

shutdown immediately win out.

[quiet dramatic music playing]

[Mathilde] There's a community meeting.

The feeling in the room is,

"It's not an outside police officer

out there, fighting for his life.

Now it's our neighbor

fighting for his life."

People are upset.

No one knows how it'll end.

The community meeting is held at Grå Hal.

Everyone shows up.

People can always tell when big decisions

are going to be made at these meetings.

You can feel it in the air.

It's gotten so bad,

it can't get any worse.

No one can tell us otherwise.

We give our statements.

About why it can't go on,

why the street should be shut down,

and why we can't support it any longer.

Then, people from the other side stand up

and say why it should be preserved,

and why all of us in Christiania

should support it.

There's a handful of people that feel

it's unfair that a minority opinion

is able to dictate how the majority

of Christianites live their lives.

Then someone gets up and says,

"The street should be closed.

Anyone who agrees,

get up here and keep it short."

I line up for the microphone,

more and more people start standing up,

more people are daring to stand up,

and it turns into this long, long line.

It becomes clear that almost everyone

at the meeting agrees.

There are still holdouts who are

frustrated, grumbling off to the side.

Somehow, we had found a way

to shine a spotlight on the few people

who were still holding up the vote.

It became clear to the dissenters

just how small of a minority they were.

At the same time,

serious talks had started

between Christianites

and the outside authorities.

The police, the City of Copenhagen,

and the Danish

Justice Department together

all took part in this series of meetings.

These meetings

had a single item on the agenda:

The permanent shutdown

of Pusher Street.

If you look at it

from the authorities' point of view,

this was the first time

that the entirety of Christiania

was willing to cooperate

on the shutdown of Pusher Street.

[contemplative music playing]

The community was actually

in agreement on this

for the first time in many, many years

that it should be shut down.

It was time to rethink it.

[Mathilde] I felt okay

for the first time in a long time.

I really felt it.

I felt this euphoria because,

finally things were going to change

because Christiania

was finally ready to change.

There were finally resources

available to us

now that the authorities

were getting involved.

On a spring day in 2024,

something happened

that no one could have imagined.

Christianites, the authorities, and the

police together, shut down Pusher Street.

The decision is made

to tear up the cobblestones

and to take a coordinated approach

to combat the cannabis market

going forward.

[Mathilde] I woke up excited

to pull up the cobbles.

It was a beautiful day,

and the sun was shining.

I was optimistic

that this was the turning point.

Welcome to the closing of Pusher Street

and the opening of Christiania.

It's very important to us

that the first stone

RISENGA MANGHEZI

CHRISTIANITE

be taken by Christianites,

by Christiania's future.

It was cool that we were the ones

to take that first stone.

We wanted the next generation to have it.

[people cheering]

I felt so, so relieved.

And there was this very powerful

feeling of community

and a belief that things can be better.

This was my childhood home,

I walked to school on that street.

But at the same time I also know

that two murders happened

on those cobblestones.

It's such a powerful symbol for me.

[Carlo] It was this bumpy street

with crooked cobblestones.

It was this part of you,

you were ready to move on from.

It was amazing to be a part of it.

[people cheering]

Hummelgaard and Sophie wanted to take

the first stone, and we're like "No way.

You're just here for your ten minutes

of fame, and then you're out of here."

We're the ones who have to deal

with pocket dealing.

It's obvious that the Christianites

couldn't have done it

without the help

of the government and the police.

PETER HUMMELGAARD - MINISTER

OF JUSTICE, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

We were able to help them

reach a peaceful resolution

for the first time

after years and years of failure.

[Mathilde] There are a lot of us

here watching.

History tells us that

it's not gone forever.

Of course, there's still this concern

and skepticism surrounding how do we

keep the momentum going?

As time goes on,

as the weeks and months go by,

we're all feeling a little bit shocked

that it's working.

There's almost no dealing happening

like there was before.

Sure, there's been a handful of people

pocket-dealing around the corner,

and some of the dealers

just moved up the square a little bit,

but it's nothing

compared to how it was before.

The police are telling us that they have

made very few or no arrests at all.

It honestly feels like a miracle

for Christiania

and nobody can really believe it.

We're all just waiting

for the other shoe to drop.

THE END OF THE WORLD

WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER

For the skeletons to come out

of the closet again.

I'm very proud that we were able

to essentially weed out organized crime,

roots and all, in Christiania

and get rid of them permanently.

From our side of things,

this wouldn't have been possible

without the help

of the Christianites speaking out.

I have nothing but positive things to say

about the, uh, the many Christianites

that we've gotten to know

and worked closely with

on the way to reach this goal.

This is a critical moment in both

Christiania's and Denmark's history.

[Larsen] They manage to close down

Pusher Street as we know it.

Months go by, and the dealers

have yet to make a return.

[Norton] If you look at the rest

of Copenhagen,

the police believe that

the overall volume of the cannabis trade

has remained unchanged.

It simply shifted to new platforms.

Now there are new digital platforms

which have supplanted

the longstanding physical marketplace.

[Hummelgaard] The cannabis market

in Copenhagen, too, is still here.

It has taken on a different shape,

but the shape it has taken so far

is easier for the police to deal with

and seems less dangerous.

There's no doubt that many people

have made tons and tons of money

there for many decades.

Of course, it would be naive for us

to think that they wouldn't jump

at the chance to go back to that.

And that's why it's essential

that we continue to offer support

for the Christianites' and their ongoing

development plans for a new Christiania.

It's also essential that the police

continue to keep cracking down

if there's even the smallest sign,

the slightest chance that even one

of these really, really, harmful gangs

or other groups show any indication

of trying to return to Christiania.

I don't think that the final chapter

has been written yet,

but we've already come so much further

than we could have hoped.

[Lykke] My view on Pusher Street

has always been the same.

I wanted to get rid of Pusher Street, but

it should have been through legalization.

Legalization could start

by following the example

of Sweden's

government-owned liquor stores

or like what they have in California

and half of the united States.

You can go somewhere

where they specialize in cannabis.

You would get proper guidance

on what to buy and how much

and you would know exactly

what you're buying.

They tell you about the strength,

and you know who to talk to

if you need to complain.

You could have cafes and similar places

where you're allowed to smoke.

I'm unsure if it's something

I'll experience in my lifetime.

I've already lost two bets that it would

happen in the next five years.

I'm not so sure

it's something I'm gonna see at all.

I don't believe

that the legalization of cannabis

or other controlled substances

is the way forward.

And I'm dead serious about this.

Most importantly because it's harmful.

It's extremely harmful even.

I grew up around people who have

suffered from cannabis-induced psychosis

and were never the same.

I have yet to see convincing data

from countries or states

where it has been legalized

where it has led to more security,

less crime, or fewer gangs.

In many other places,

it appears that the exact opposite

has happened.

That's why I'm not particularly inspired.

It's naive to think that legalization

will have any substantial effect

on g*ng and criminal activity.

That's why I don't think legalization

is the way to go.

[intriguing music playing]

[Lauridsen] Considering how many

resources and man-hours

the police have poured into this,

it's hard to make the argument

that the effort has been successful.

MOGENS LAURIDSEN - FORMER HEAD

OF OPERATIONS & RIOT SQUAD

There are no fewer cannabis users

now than there were

when I joined the force in '77.

The police's only focus

is on the fact that it's ill*gal,

so they are constantly

focused on fighting it.

As long as there is a demand for it,

it's nearly impossible to curb it.

If you want to change anything, you have

to influence attitudes towards using it.

Otherwise, it's a never-ending battle,

no matter how ill*gal you make it.

There's so much money at stake

that there are people who will sell.

[quiet dramatic music playing]

[Norton] Now, when we look at Christiania,

post the closure of Pusher Street,

it is clear that the obvious sale

of cannabis has all but disappeared.

There are, without a doubt,

still ways to buy cannabis in Christiania.

There are also places

in the old Pusher Street

where small-scale trading and pocket

dealing is beginning to ramp up.

But overall the cannabis business

has been all but eliminated.

It's a new era for Pusher Street.

[Carlo] It's the fourth of September 2025.

I'm going to show you Pusher Street

and our transformation.

The old street was all about cannabis,

and now that's pretty much gone.

There's hardly any of it left,

just a little bit.

Here we are at the square.

Here's where you can see the area

that's seen the most obvious changes.

Before, there were 35 stalls

crowded around this little area here,

all the way around.

The Community Kitchen

is on the right here.

It was actually the dealers who helped

create this beautiful little area here.

We haven't seen the police here yet.

They're often out here

during the day patrolling quietly.

There aren't as many dealers anymore.

A few sell out of their pockets.

It's always been like that.

Christiania has always been for that.

You can still find

a little something to smoke,

but scaled down to two percent

of what it was before.

Now, you can let your kids run around

and play in the street safely.

It wasn't like that when I was a kid.

Back in the day,

there was a lot of tension.

There were stalls on both sides,

and it got sort of suffocating.

Now things have opened up

in a completely different way.

Here we have our local mama,

Bente, in her usual spot.

She's been part of Christiania's

downtown scene since forever.

She's seen it all,

and I'm sure she's delighted

to have some peace and quiet.

During the day, it's fine,

but after seven at night, it's not great.

BENTE MOREN

CHRISTIANITE

It'll take a lot for me

to go out after dark.

- I'm surprised to hear you say that.

- Yeah.

You used to know the regulars

who were here at night.

- Yeah, that used to bring some safety

- Yeah.

in the old days of Pusher Street.

- You knew all the faces.

- There are a lot of strangers around now,

and there are a lot of fights

happening at night.

- Really?

- Yeah.

[contemplative music playing]

I'm really surprised by that.

This is the end of Pusher Street here.

The old yellow line.

Cannabis not allowed, cannabis allowed.

So that's Pusher Street.

[contemplative music fades]

[upbeat bluesy rock music playing]