My name is Mikkel Warming,
I'm the Mayor for the Department of Social Affairs
for the city of Copenhagen.
That means I'm a Deputy Mayor in Copenhagen, with a responsibility for social affairs.
The vote last week was actually a replicant of a vote (from) two years ago,
that we had in the City Council where we, a large majority of the City Council
voted to try to propose
make a proposal for decriminalization of marijuana in the city of Copenhagen,
or in Denmark in general.
What we voted on on the City Council was to make
request to the Danish government to
to give us the possibility to do this,
this experiment.
Marijuana is accessable everywhere,
in the city of Copenhagen, and in the country as well.
Well over 50% of every youngster has tried marijuana.
Decriminalization would be an act to try and to separate
a softer drug, like marijuana, from the harder drugs.
Get the sale under control, meaning that instead of getting it on every street corner,
with a criminal pusher who also wants to sell you harder, more dangerous drugs,
you should get it in perhaps 30 to 40
public selling places.
You would have public employees who would be there and sell it,
and perhaps if you look like you're using too much, also talk a little bit about
what are the dangers of misusing marijuana, because there are dangers
if you use marijuana too much, of course there are.
What we're most keen on is the state sale of cannabis
in special shops, like in Sweden with alcohool, you can only buy them in (state run liquor stores).
We want the same in Copenhagen for cannabis.
What we have seen in the city streets of Copenhagen in the last 3 years,
or something like that, is a gang war.
A lot of the real fight is about who should control the drug market.
The Police estimate that the
marijuana sale in the City of Copenhagen alone
is well between 200 and 300 million Euros per year.
That's a lot of money, so much money you can fight over it.
So much money that you can kill over it, and they do!
And that's another reason, trying by decriminalization,
by controlling the market to try to prevent
the gangs form having this large a source of income.
We estimate that around 2/3s of the sale can be taken from the streets,
from the criminal pushers,
to public-controlled selling points.
We want to make a state
production and distribution of cannabis
unlike the Dutch where you have illegal production
and illegal import.
We want to have state production so we won't be
buying the stuff from international organized crime.
We will be buying it and producing it in Denmark.
We would actually make it less accessible for youngsters,
meaning people under 15 or 16 years old.
It would be less accessable because you couldn't go down to the corner to buy it.
You have to go shop, and they probably wouldn't sell it to you.
Of course you have to look at,
can people from abroad go in and buy marijuana?
Can people from Sweden do it? Can people from Germany?
That's a discussion we'll have to have.
This is one of the things that would be (?),
but I'm not as woorried about that.
It's a way to get the tourist industry going, but
we should of course make sure that people
don't get into trouble and that it's used responsibly.
Do you have any estimations on the economic benefits?
I think, a little under or about
every year, around 100 million Euros in taxations.
On the city of Copenhagen label alone.
Worldwide policy towards cannabis has failed
very very much.
The international conventions, they are a matter of how you interpret them ...
The Netherlands had coffee shops,
they have it and they respected partners in international society.
Portugal has decriminalized even harder drug recently,
or actually 10 years ago.
They are also a respected member of the international community.
Countries like Switzerland, and other countries like Denmark,
have been giving out heroin as treatment for drug addicts.
So the international conventions are a matter of interpretation.
The vote last week was try, now that we have changed government,
gone from a right-wing to a center-left government,
once again to make a concrete proposal and put it forward to our new government.
A lot of parties were busted,
my party for once,
but there are also the big social democrats, and they are more skeptical
over this experiment.
And if they won't vote for it, if they won't put out the
the changes, we can't do it in Copenhagen.
In the very near future, this year or next year,
probably not voted yes.
But what is being done every time this issue is being raised,
everytime we take it up as a city council,
is that the borders of the debate move.
instead of the accusation that you will make Copenhagen
the drug haven or the marijuana haven
of Scandinavia
Perthaps then demystify by also taking some of the internationalist experience,
We can see, for instance,
the use of marijuana in Dutch youngsters is lower than it is in Denmark.
The use of harder drugs in Portugal hasn't increased
in the 10 years that it has been decriminalized.
The inhabitants of Copenhagen,
there's a very large majority that wants to decrimnalize marijuana.
Politicians on the national level are far behind the public on this matter.
We push the boundaries of the debate every time, meaning ...
that in the forseeable future, we will get there,
and we will have some kind of decriminalization of marijuana, I'm sure of it.
Transcribed and Subtitled by Hunter Holliman