Copenhagen’s plan to legalise cannabis may see the city import the drug from certain locations in the United States. According to a Copenhagen Post report, the latest proposal for the scheme could see cannabis brought to the Danish capital from Washington and Colorado – two western US states in which the drug was legalised by voters last November.
The move is part of the city’s new proposal for a three-year trial, which Officials say via official council documents will bring a number of benefits: “the legal sale of cannabis will result in decreased gang criminality, more prevention and a better life for average cannabis users.”
Copenhagen’s deputy mayor for social affairs Mikkel Warming told the Copenhagen Post, “If we get the three-year trial, it will be important to work as quickly and effectively as possible, so we are looking abroad for where we could import cannabis. Yes, we are looking at Colorado and Washington, but we’re also looking at places like Great Britain, where there is state-controlled production of marijuana for medical purposes.”
He went on to add, “We realise of course that there are a lot of international conventions and regulations to deal with, but we think it is possible. The US states of Colorado and Washington recently legalised marijuana for recreational use, so it makes sense to learn from their experiences and to explore the possibility of importing from them.”
Mr Warming went on to say that there were still many details to be worked out in the programme and that under the initiative that cannabis would only be legal to Danish residents over the age of 18 in order to prevent ‘hash tourism’ as seen in nearby Amsterdam.
[…] Copenhagen may import US cannabis (icenews.is) […]
As a European citizen who looks in horror at the heinous consequences Prohibition and the so-called War on Drugs policies have had on drug producing and transit countries, in particular Latin American ones, I cannot help but feel ashamed by the total lack of support shown so far by European countries for the call made by sitting Latin American presidents to engage in an open debate to find alternatives to current drugs policies.
Why have we not heard a single word of encouragement, let alone support, from European countries that have “quasi legalised” their demand for, as well as their domestic supply of, drugs?
How can we explain the silence of countries such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, among many others, which have de jure or de facto depenalised or decriminalised the personal consumption of some drugs?
Or the silence of countries that allow users to grow a number of marijuana plants in their homes and for their own consumption, or tolerate the operation of so called “cannabis social clubs”, or authorise the cultivation of marijuana to supply dispensaries where consumption on medical grounds is allowed?
I do not have any doubts that harm reduction programmes, decriminalisation or depenalisation of the demand for drugs are sensible and necessary policies. But if we were serious about tackling the so-called drug problem, we should be accompanying those policies regarding the demand with equally sensible policies towards the supply of drugs coming from Latin America—or from any other part of the world for that matter.
It is disgraceful, almost criminal, to see that while Latin America is trying to promote the discussion of current and alternative drug policies, we behave in the most cowardly fashion: we remain in silence!
Our mutism is totally inexcusable, for in the final analysis the onus is on us, drug consuming countries in the developed world. We should be the ones promoting the Legalisation & Regulation of the supply. We should be the ones making all the noises calling for a change in the national and international legislation on drugs. We should be the ones spearheading the movement seeking the end of Prohibition and the War on Drugs, and the regulation of the production and distribution of all drugs.
Gart Valenc
Twitter: @gartvalenc
This is ridiculous. Cannabis cannot be exported from the US because the Customs and Border agency are Federal and the US federal government controls exports. Similarly in the UK, exports are just not legally possible.
An idea: send Danish handworkers to Washington and Colorado to assist in establishing a “domestic” single-toke (“one-hitter”) industry based on establishing a 25-mg serving size (Moderation and Control built into the administering equipment) to entirely displace the hot burning overdose monoxide “Joint” (yes, right in the land that gave the world $igarettes and 6,000,000-deaths-a-year inhalocaust).
Then at first, as news reports of youngsters NOT getting started on hot puffin’ overdose and society NOT crumbling spread worldwide, Copenhagen can import both the weed and the utensils; but soon a One Hit Head Shop will famously rise downtown, and within three years cannabis liberation will have shown how to head off binge drinking and nicotine addiction (among other social plagues) and the “experiment” will win a Know Well Prize.