Of all the Scandinavian countries, Denmark appears to be the most progressive when it comes to cannabis culture. Parts of Copenhagen, such as the Christiania region, are comparable to Amsterdam in terms of cannabis usage. Denmark is also one of the world's leading exporters of medical cannabis, along with Canada, Israel and the Netherlands. While Canada has legalized cannabis for recreational purposes, and grows some of its own cannabis in addition to importing cannabis cultivated in Uruguay - another nation that has also legalized cannabis for recreational purposes - where does Denmark, like the Netherlands, get cannabis to use internally as well as to export to other countries, given that recreational cannabis is still illegal in both these countries, and also considering that the climatic conditions, especially in Denmark is not conducive to sun-grown cannabis? The answer appears to be that Denmark, like the Netherlands, gets its cannabis from a number of sources. It probably gets a part of its cannabis from Canada and Uruguay, and possibly some part from South American countries like Brazil, Argentina and Colombia that have recently legalized cannabis for medical purposes. It also probably gets a part of its cannabis from Morocco which has legalized cultivation of cannabis for export purposes, and which grows some of the finest cannabis in the world. Denmark also probably gets some of its cannabis from the black markets of Afghanistan, Lebanon and India, again three countries with high-quality sun-grown cannabis that is illegal by law. Together, all these sources ensures that Denmark has sufficient cannabis for its own internal needs, of the elites at least that is, as well as sufficient cannabis to export to other countries in Europe for their elites as 'medical cannabis'.
One of the first times I heard about cannabis in Denmark was when one of my friends returned from Copenhagen and spoke about a place called Christiania where cannabis was freely available for purchase and people openly consumed cannabis while the authorities turned a blind eye. I subsequently read about the place in some studies that had been carried out regarding urban centers which differed drastically from their surroundings but managed to exert such an influence that they are regarded as an essential part of the social and cultural fabric of the place. Apparently, Christiania boasts the equivalent of the Amsterdam coffee shops kind of experience in a similarly decriminalized sort of way. The authorities are well aware of the state of affairs, but the management of Christiania is left largely to the locals who live there and who ensure that any form of criminal activity is controlled. Persons who visit Christiania range from Danish citizens who like their cannabis to tourists who visit the place for a novel experience along with Danish art and culture. The place is so popular that it is said to be the second most popular tourist place in Copenhagen. Sage Publications reported that 'The [Christiania] market, bars and restaurants in the immediate vicinity are popular among local Danes, and the overall unique characteristics of the area have made it the second largest tourist attraction in Copenhagen. This combination of a stable, public and accessible market with low statutory penalties signals a low risk transaction opportunity for cannabis buyers. As such, the market in Christiania can be compared to an illicit version of the coffee shop system in the Netherlands. To buyers the continued existence of the market in Christiania has signalled a lenient sentiment on behalf of the government towards cannabis retail sales similar to how “Dutch coffee shops play a symbolic role as a paradigm of liberal cannabis policies” (Sznitman et al., 2008)'. The Hindu reported, some time back, regarding ten things to do in Copenhagen, that '8. Go psychedelic in Christiania: This place comes alive only when it’s dark. A short walk away from Christianshavn metro station, one may need to ask directions to reach here. A large arched gate welcomes the brave tourist. Christiania is popular for its hippie culture. Though illegal in Denmark, marijuana is sold in open and over the counter.'
Canadian multi-national cannabis companies have set up shop in Denmark to market locally made Danish cannabis to countries like Germany and within Denmark as medical cannabis through pharmacies. MJBizDaily reported in March 2021 that '“We started to deliver to the first pharmacies who ordered the product from us,” Yvonne Moeller, the company’s director of communications for Europe, told Marijuana Business Daily via email. She said more than 150 pharmacies have the products, which were made at Aurora Nordic in Denmark. “Last week, the (first) medical cannabis products ‘Made in Denmark’ reached German pharmacies,” Aurora Deutschland GmbH announced on LinkedIn. The move is part of Aurora’s plan to meet demand in the EU using its European-based production.' In June 2021, MJBizDaily reported that getting enough product to service the Danish local medical cannabis market was proving difficult and that most of this was imported cannabis. It said, 'At the program’s peak in mid-2019, over 1,000 patients received 1,800 prescriptions in consecutive quarters. In the final three months of last year, however, fewer than 500 patients accessed medical cannabis through the trial. Getting products permitted for local sale has been difficult. Only eight of the 63 applications to admit products to the trial scheme had won approval by mid-2020, MJBizDaily reported last year. All medical cannabis provided to Danish patients was imported. Access to cannabis produced within Denmark has been another hurdle.' In April 2023, MJBizDaily reported that 'Some companies say Denmark’s business-friendly regulations and agritech expertise make the country a suitable hub for medical cannabis exports. The proximity to Germany offers advantages. But the import market in Germany and elsewhere remains small, while the number of prospective medical cannabis exporters grows by the day. To help facilitate domestic production, in 2021 the Danish government made permanent the ability for businesses to grow cannabis for medical use.' From this it appears that the local growing of cannabis for exports as medical cannabis is growing in Denmark. There also appears to be a more or less robust mechanism for regulation and approval of local cannabis production for medical purposes though this appears to be a bottleneck for the increasing number of businesses looking to enter the medical cannabis market as cultivators. MJBizDaily reported that 'The Danish Medicines Agency added that it will continue to use office-based assessments and controls in some situations. The scope and procedure for these will be agreed for the individual inspection and GXP area, and may include, for example, the submission of relevant documentation for review by the Danish Medicines Agency, access to relevant IT systems, and video conferencing during the inspection. The Agency issues certificates for medical cannabis producers to confirm compliance with regulations.'
Whatever the sources of cannabis, there is a need for Denmark to officially legalize cannabis for recreational purposes. This is primarily to remove the ambiguity and hypocrisy around cannabis usage with the added benefit of making the businesses that thrive in places like Christiania legitimate. A Scandinavian country like Denmark legalizing cannabis and supporting its worldwide legalization is required if the UN is to remove cannabis restrictions, and if other Scandinavian countries are to end their own hypocrisy regarding cannabis. It is also required to send the right messages around Europe and the rest of the world that the plant is medicinal and a safe recreational option unlike other drugs in the market today. The legalization of cannabis only for medical purposes, and the approval of only the medical cannabis market by the government, is indicative of class-based discrimination in Denmark. Medical cannabis is only available to the elites who have the necessary documentation and can access and afford the cannabis sold as a pharmaceutical drug. For the majority of the people - the working classes, the minorities and the poor, medical cannabis will not be accessible. They will be dependent on the illegal black market for their cannabis which poses all sorts of risks to health and safety, not to mention the drain on the economy and the strengthening of the drug cartels that also indulge in other activities like the trade of illegal synthetic drugs - such as heroin and methamphetamine - besides arms dealing, human trafficking, extortion, and so on. The primary reasons why Canada and Germany legalized cannabis for recreational purposes are to shrink the black market for it, to reduce crime and to protect the youth. Keeping cannabis illegal for recreational purposes means that vulnerable sections of society such as the elderly, women, the poor and the sick will struggle to access cannabis and will be forced to go to harmful synthetic pharmaceutical drugs - legal and illegal - besides alcohol and tobacco.
The ambiguity with which European countries like Denmark approach cannabis means that more repressive countries are emboldened in their implementation of cannabis prohibition often violating human rights and destroying the precious plant indiscriminately. The ambiguous policies regarding cannabis result in people in poorer nations, minorities, indigenous people, women, the youth, the poor and the sick being deprived of the plant while the elites of nations like Denmark continue their usage as if everything was normal but in the public forum continue to support cannabis prohibition citing international treaties. Cannabis prohibition has been one of the most widely used policies to suppress minorities and weaker sections of society while serving to protect the interests of big businesses and the ruling class elites worldwide for nearly a century now. A number of Scandinavian countries such as Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway have been considering decriminalizing drugs. This is not enough. Cannabis needs to be legalized for recreational use, specifically home growing, so that people have a safe natural recreational alternative - much safer than alcohol and tobacco - to the dangerous synthetic drugs such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids, synthetic cannabinoids, novel psychotropic substances and abuse of prescription drugs that is ravaging societies worldwide. Legalizing cannabis completely and working at the global stage for global legalization of cannabis for all purposes will enable the Danes to trade legitimately with countries like Afghanistan, Lebanon and India. This will not only benefit the Danes in terms of legal access to high-quality cannabis for its own society and for export, but also the traditional cannabis growing nations where cannabis was prohibited by European nations and the US, thus taking it out of the hands of the poorest classes to whom it belonged and placing it firmly in the hands of the elites all over the world.
Cannabis legalization will enable the world to move away from the unsustainable industries that destroy the planet and push the world to the brink of climate disaster. But the current power structure in most nations is designed to benefit the elite classes opposed to cannabis. The power structure's enabling elements are: politicians, the medical industry, religious orthodoxy, cannabis prohibition groups, the media, law enforcement and drug enforcement, the armed forces, to name a few. The increasing awareness that almost all anti-cannabis propaganda is false, created by selfish interests, is one of the key factors. Growing scientific information is debunking all the myths that kept cannabis prohibited globally for nearly a century now. Some of these myths are: cannabis causes insanity; cannabis is addictive and harmful; cannabis is more harmful than alcohol, opium and tobacco; cannabis is used by criminals and causes crime; cannabis is used by the lowest classes and castes of society; women who use cannabis are prostitutes; cannabis legalization will destroy the youth; and so on. Most of these myths were debunked more than 150 years ago itself, by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1894-95 set up by the British colonial rulers of India in order to prohibit cannabis and promote their alcohol, opium, tobacco and western medicine. But that did not stop the world from still going ahead and prohibiting cannabis, since the elites of the world who control global drug policy had amassed great wealth and power through the sale of their preferred drugs - alcohol, opium and tobacco - and had also grown vastly rich in the industries that thrived in the absence of cannabis, namely the petrochemical industry, the synthetic pharmaceutical industry, the petrochemical-based fertilizer and pesticides industry, the fossil-fuel based construction industry, the petrochemical-based non-biodegradable plastics industry, the synthetic fabric and cotton industry, the timber-based paper industry, and so on...
Related articles
Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article.
'“We started to deliver to the first pharmacies who ordered the product from us,” Yvonne Moeller, the company’s director of communications for Europe, told Marijuana Business Daily via email.
She said more than 150 pharmacies have the products, which were made at Aurora Nordic in Denmark.
“Last week, the (first) medical cannabis products ‘Made in Denmark’ reached German pharmacies,” Aurora Deutschland GmbH announced on LinkedIn.
The move is part of Aurora’s plan to meet demand in the EU using its European-based production.'
'At the program’s peak in mid-2019, over 1,000 patients received 1,800 prescriptions in consecutive quarters.
In the final three months of last year, however, fewer than 500 patients accessed medical cannabis through the trial.
Getting products permitted for local sale has been difficult.
Only eight of the 63 applications to admit products to the trial scheme had won approval by mid-2020, MJBizDaily reported last year.
All medical cannabis provided to Danish patients was imported.
Access to cannabis produced within Denmark has been another hurdle.'
'Some companies say Denmark’s business-friendly regulations and agritech expertise make the country a suitable hub for medical cannabis exports.
The proximity to Germany offers advantages. But the import market in Germany and elsewhere remains small, while the number of prospective medical cannabis exporters grows by the day.
To help facilitate domestic production, in 2021 the Danish government made permanent the ability for businesses to grow cannabis for medical use.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/denmark-medical-cannabis-sales-mostly-on-the-rise-but-pilot-program-sputters/
'The Danish Medicines Agency added that it will continue to use office-based assessments and controls in some situations.
The scope and procedure for these will be agreed for the individual inspection and GXP area, and may include, for example, the submission of relevant documentation for review by the Danish Medicines Agency, access to relevant IT systems, and video conferencing during the inspection.
The Agency issues certificates for medical cannabis producers to confirm compliance with regulations.
'8. Go psychedelic in Christiania
This place comes alive only when it’s dark. A short walk away from Christianshavn metro station, one may need to ask directions to reach here. A large arched gate welcomes the brave tourist. Christiania is popular for its hippie culture. Though illegal in Denmark, marijuana is sold in open and over the counter.'
'The [Christiania] market, bars and restaurants in the immediate vicinity are popular among local Danes, and the overall unique characteristics of the area have made it the second largest tourist attraction in Copenhagen. This combination of a stable, public and accessible market with low statutory penalties signals a low risk transaction opportunity for cannabis buyers. As such, the market in Christiania can be compared to an illicit version of the coffee shop system in the Netherlands. To buyers the continued existence of the market in Christiania has signalled a lenient sentiment on behalf of the government towards cannabis retail sales similar to how “Dutch coffee shops play a symbolic role as a paradigm of liberal cannabis policies” (Sznitman et al., 2008)'
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