Drug Dealers Go on Strike

Good idea? or bad idea? BBB
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Drug Dealers Go on Strike

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Drug dealers in Copenhagen's Christiania hippie colony took novel action on Wednesday by going on strike to protest against proposals to bulldoze the alternative "free city."

Some politicians, mainly from the ruling center-right Liberals party, have called for the 30-year-old colony to be demolished to make way for a big urban renewal scheme.

"All trade has been stopped since this morning and we do not know how long this strike will take, maybe days, maybe months," Pernilla Hansen at the Christiania information office told Reuters.

"We want to show the government that an open market for soft drugs is better then forcing people on to streets where much harder stuff is sold illegally," she said.

The 75-acre former military compound bordering a picturesque area in downtown Copenhagen was occupied by hippie squatters in 1971 and declared an autonomous "free city" and alternative society.

With a population of around 1,000, it is one of Copenhagen's most popular tourist attractions, visited by about half a million people a year, many to buy soft drugs such as cannabis.