The Next Marijuana Legalization Fight? Copenhagen vs. the Rest of Denmark

The city of Copenhagen wants to legalize cannabis and, if possible, get supplies of the drug from the United States. Following a Europe-wide trend, Denmark’s capital has been planning a three-year experiment that would aim to wrest the city’s soft drugs trade away from criminal gangs and place it under direct municipal control. But while city officials overwhelmingly support the move, the Danish national government may not let them proceed.

Last year the national government rejected more tentative plans that Copenhagen city councillors had approved by 39 votes to 9. So it's no coincidence that representatives from Seattle were flown in to the city for a conference last week, invited to help craft a policy that stands a better chance of surviving resistance from non-metropolitan Danish and neighboring Swedish mayors. The move reveals two longstanding fault lines: one between the progressive city and its more conservative hinterland, and another between those who see the drug trade as a distant metropolitan phenomenon and those who have to live with it on their doorstep.