http://www.christiania.org/~connect...dex.php?p=&l=uk Open International Competition - The future look of Pusher Street - PusherStreet has been normalized - but still no hard drugs. The stalls with open hash-trade, which has caused one of the main conflicts between the free-state Christiania and the Danish government, has now been removed by the pushers themselves. The trade is now as visible, as anywhere else in the world, in street, parks and apartments where hash-trade is taking place. The only point, where there'll be no normalization, is the continuing succesful ban of hard drugs. Since the government had demanded a normalization of the conditions, we believe to have solved the main issue. The area around Pusher Street will be temporarily renovated and arranged as a public and recreative area. In accordance to the popular (!) trend, Christiania will announce an Open Competition for the future appearance of Pusher Street. All materiel regarding the competition will be made publicly available on the 1.st of feb. '04 at www.christiania.org, where rules and graphic materiel will be available for downloading. We welcome everybody from the whole world to participate. The Press-group Contact: Pernille Hansen +45 2881 8991 Conditions The competition is open and international. The visual appearance of the contributions is traced on to the map (download elsewhere on page) and handed in with explanations and appendixes. Pusherstreet is composed of homes, workshops, community-clubs, cultural and servicefunctions and the comittee is tied by the exicisting functions. Every contribution is expected to take a starting point in the history of Pusherstreet and make sure the cultural and commerciel functions is kept in an open and recreative environment, to the joy of citizens in Christiania, Copenhagen and the rest of the world. Contributions not considering the demographic composition only get partial consideration. The comittee can use contributions completely and partly, alone and in combination with other contributions. Ideas can be singled out and adopted to the excisting conditions. By contribution the artistic and other(im)material rights is owned by Christiania. Christiania reserve the right to disclose the incoming ideas. The material is not returned. All contributors is kindly asked to write a legible name and return-adress. Deadline: 1st of May 2004. Please send to Nyt Forum - Christiania, Bådsmandsstræde 43, 1407 Kbh. K. - mark: "Open Competition". The winner will be publicly announced on the 1st of June 2004. The winner will be contacted directly. Christiania ideas behind the open cannabis market. No possession, trade or influence of hard drugs Only open cannabis trade allowed No sale to under aged No violence and weapons A non criminal environment Christiania supports the legalization of cannabis for both medical and recreative use. This belief is built on thousands of years of experience with the healing and analgesic effects of the cannabisplant. Moreover cannabis is believed to be less harmful than alcohol. With the open cannabismarket, Christiania has created something unique; as the only place in the world cannabis is being sold in a non criminal environment, guaranteed free of hard drugs. This means that taxpaying citizens as well as "young hudlums to be" has been able to buy cannabis in secure surroundings, with less danger of getting mixed up in criminal circles. With or without Pusherstreet, Christiania will always be a multicultural oasis for the citizens of Copenhagen and the thousands of tourists visiting each year. There is no dought however, that the open market in Pusherstreet has rectified the fatal consequences of the prohibition law. The ban on cannabis has criminalised a very large and heterogenous group of citizens, who choose to smoke a instead of drinking a bottle of wine. Many other european countries (Germany, UK...) have chosen to deregulate cannabis partly or totally. In Denmark the politicians have chosen to strike even harder in the war against the green weed. The police and other so called experts acknowledge that closing Pusherstreet won't reduce demands, but scatter the trade all over Copenhagen. The police however continues the training of a special force of 1200 police officers, two for each adult in Christiania. The new developments happens to the astonishment of a large group of citizens, supported by experts in the police, legal, health and social departments, who recommends a legilization of cannabis The history of Pusherstreet. 1971: As a child of the Youth Rebellion and the preoccupation with expansion of consciousness, Christiania had a very experimental relationship towards psychedelic drugs in the beginning of the 70's. The cannabis trade was unorganized and took place in homes, bars and other public places surrounding Pusherstreet. 1979: During the late 70's the problems with hard narcotics was increasing in Christinia and neighbourhood. This lead to the Junk blockade in 1979, which put a ban on all possesions, trade and influence of hard drugs. The action took place over a year, where decisive citizens of Christiania effectuated the new law and cleaned up at Christiania and the rest of Christianshavn. 80 junkies was sent on to rehabilatation and more than half of them remained junk free. Another result of the blockade was the decision to do all cannabis trade in the open, to prevent hard narcotics being sold under the table. 80's: In the 80's the rockers entered the scene at Christiania, expecting to increase their earnings. Their presence lead to a very hard environment and especially the old entrance was the stage of many rough episodes. The situation culminated in may, 1989, when the citizens had, had enough. They closed the old entrance (reopened autumn, 2003) and introduced The Yellow Line. The Yellow Line, still excisting today, limited the cannabis trade to take place from Carl Madsens Plads to Woodstock. 1991: As a result of many debates the bars in Christiania gets official licenses i 1991. This causes the environment around Pusherstreet to develop, as the bars are afraid of getting into trouble with their new licenses. The police razzias are increasing during '92/'93 and several weeks of violent episodes with the police, who fared with great intensity. In 1993 Christiania organized "Week 12 - get well", with lots of funny events replacing the violent clashes between police and demonstrators. The action caused former minister of justice Erling Olsen to stop the police activities in Christiania, describing them as a waste of ressouces and not serving any purpose. Being rid of hard drugs and ironfist of the rocker gangs, Pusherstreet was characterized by growth, wellregulated conditions and a succefull uphold on the ban of hard drugs all through the 90's. In 1999 the police cleans out many of the small cannabis clubs around Copenhagen, increasing the demands on Pusherstreet. 2003: The rightwing government gets a renewed interest in Christiania, which lead to an increasing pressure on Pusherstreet through 2003. The cannabis trade and developement of Pusherstreet is used as an excuse to put an end to Denmarks social experiment, Christiania, without an evaluation. The focus was especially on the undisguised trade (as opposed to the invisible trade taking place around the clubs of Denmark), and the traffical inconveniences. Still the police acknowledges that closing Pusherstreet wont result in less demand or trade of cannabis in Denmark. 2004: On the 4th of January 2004 the pushers took down all the hash stalls themselves, in protest of being used to close Christiania, as we know it today. The action took place to comply with the wishes of the neighbours and to prevent violent episodes arising between dissatisfied citizens and the police. Moreover it was an attempt to remove the focus to what it's really all about : housing-reforms and the selfgovernance of Christiania. The many razzias in Pusherstreet since then, has resulted in a very few confiscations, which gives reason to believe the trade has been reduced. Medio Jauary the police invited the whole press to visit them at a place in Hedehusene, with a true Hollywood set-up of Pusherstreet, where currently 1200 policeofficers receive special-training. In february 2004 The open competion "The future of Pusherstreet" is launched and ecpected to announce a winner during spring