Denmark
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| Denmark | |
|---|---|
| Danmark | |
| |
| Rubjerg Knude lighthouse at dusk, Hjørring | |
| Capital | Copenhagen |
| Continent | Europe |
| Subregion | Northern Europe |
| Cannabis Status | |
| Legal Status | Illegal (medical cannabis scheme; products of at most 0.2 per cent THC lawful) |
| Status Since | 1955 |
| Enforcement | Possession for own use a fine (2,000 kroner for up to 9.9 grams of hash, first offence) |
| Documentation | |
| Growing Regions | 0 |
| Growing Areas | 0 |
| Accessions | 1 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Denmark is a country in Northern Europe where hemp, hamp, was retted for its fibre in pits and wells from the Iron Age.[1] Cannabis is on list B of the order on euphoriant substances, of substances that may be used only for medical and scientific purposes.[2] Possession for own use is normally punished by a fine.[3] A pilot scheme of medical cannabis for treating patients began on 1 January 2018; a permanent scheme took its place on 1 January 2026.[4][5]
From the mid-1970s an open cannabis market stood in Pusher Street, in the Free Town of Christiania in Copenhagen. The government named it Northern Europe's largest open cannabis market.[6] The organised hash trade there was closed on 6 April 2024.[7]
Geography
The prehistoric sites with retting pits for flax and hemp lie in the east of the country, on Zealand and Funen.[1] The medieval sediments of Dallund Sø, a lake on Funen, hold high values of Cannabis-type pollen.[8][9]
In the 19th century botanists gathered hemp around Copenhagen. H. Mortensen found it "forvilded ved Jonstrup" (run wild at Jonstrup) in 1859, at Kløvermarken on Amager in 1889 and on waste ground by Vestre Kirkegaard at Valby in 1897.[10] Observers for the atlas of the Danish flora recorded it 129 times between 1993 and 2011. They found it on waste ground by a municipal storage yard, a gravel pit and a recycling site, on fallow fields and building plots, on a circus ground where elephants were fed and at the foot of a wall near a bird table.[11]
Of the 4,231 kilograms of hash that the police seized in 2025, 1,461 were seized by South and Southern Jutland Police, 840 by South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police and 811 by Copenhagen Police.[12]
Demographics
In the survey of 2023 reported to the European Union Drugs Agency, 37.6 per cent of Danish adults aged 16 to 64 had used cannabis at some time, and 12.5 per cent of those aged 16 to 34 had used it in the past year. Among school students aged 15 to 16 the lifetime figure was 12 per cent.[13] Houborg and Vammen (2012) have documented the political and public concern over young people's cannabis use in the 1960s.[14]: 2 Vibeke Asmussen writes that cannabis use was part of life in Christiania from its start, as it was part of the youth revolt of the 1960s and 1970s.[6]
Agriculture
The Danish hamp is attested in its present sense from 1509. Kalkar's dictionary of older Danish has the phrase hegle hamp og hør ("to hackle hemp and flax") and the compound hampeager, a hemp field.[15] The land-use census of 15 July 1912 counted hemp together with spurrey, caraway, rape and flax. Between 1907 and 1912 the areas sown with spurrey, flax and hemp had fallen by up to a third.[16] The Swedish Board of Agriculture reported in 1961 that Denmark had grown a very limited amount of soft hemp during the Second World War and the years just after, at most 100 hectares a year, and that the crop had ended completely in the mid-1940s.[17]
Field trials at Flakkebjerg and Rønhave from 1998 to 2000 tested five fibre-hemp cultivars. At Flakkebjerg, Fedora, Fedrina, Felina and Futura gave about 13 tonnes of dry matter a hectare and Fasamo about 9.[18] Industrial hemp today needs a permit, valid for one year at most. It is typically grown as cover for game, for fibre and for seed.[19] The Danish Medicines Agency may permit commercial growing for one year at a time on fields of at least 0.3 hectares each, of plants with at most 0.2 per cent THC.[2] Farmers applied for basic payment on 384.47 hectares of hemp in 2024, on the preliminary figures.[20]
Cannabis in Denmark
The Danish hamp corresponds to Icelandic hampr and Swedish hampa.[15][21] The index of the order on euphoriant substances refers Hash and Marihuana to its entry for cannabis.[2]
History
Archaeological finds
Stina Troldtoft Andresen and Sabine Karg studied waterlogged pits at eight prehistoric sites, dated between 800 BC and AD 1050, which they read as pits for retting the stems of flax, hemp and nettle. Hemp remains were found at four of them. At Kragehavegård and at Hvissinge Vest, both dated AD 375–550, the pits held hemp seeds or pollen; one pit at Hvissinge Vest is radiocarbon-dated to AD 400–500. Pollen of hemp was found in all three pits sampled there with seeds and capsules of flax, and the authors take the pits to have been used to ret both plants. A single hemp seed came from a well at Strandby Gammeltoft (AD 650–1000), and hemp seeds from the pits at Næs (AD 750–900).[1]
At Dallund Sø, Peter Rasmussen found rising amounts of cereal and Cannabis-type pollen in the Late Iron Age, AD 400–1050, and read them as a sign of more arable farming. In Rasmussen's reading the high values of Cannabis-type pollen in the medieval sediments suggest intensive retting of hemp.[8]
Herbals and floras (1648–1897)
Simon Paulli's Danish herbal, Flora Danica. Det er: Dansk Urtebog, was printed in Copenhagen in 1648.[22] On Gotland in 1702 a long passage translated from it was written into the hemp entry of A. C. Münchenberg's herbarium book.[23]: 226–227, 248 Cannabis sativa appears four times in the Danish regional floras of 1857–1881, in entries dated 1864 (Emil Rostrup), 1872 (H. Mortensen, at Helsingør), 1874 and 1875 (C. Thomsen).[24] The dated herbarium sheets begin in 1859; they include one from Troense on Tåsinge of 1861 and others from around Copenhagen from 1864.[10]
Drug control (1955–2003)
The act on euphoriant substances, lov nr. 169 of 24 May 1955, was amended in 1965.[25] Its breach is punished by a fine or up to two years' imprisonment.[26] On 12 December 1968 the Minister of Justice proposed a new section of the penal code: supplying euphoriants to a larger number of people, for a considerable payment or in other especially aggravating circumstances, was to carry up to six years' imprisonment.[25] In the account of Maj Nygaard-Christensen and Vibeke Asmussen Frank, this section 191 of 1969 was aimed at suppliers rather than users of cannabis. It was approved on condition that law enforcement would distinguish between cannabis and other drugs and between users and sellers. Political leaders of the time did not favour legalising cannabis but were concerned that stricter sentences would criminalise users further.[14]: 2
In September 1971 a mixed group of people moved into the area of the former Bådsmandsstræde barracks on Christianshavn, which became the Free Town of Christiania.[27] Asmussen dates the cannabis market of Pusher Street, its main street, from the mid-1970s.[6] Bladt calls the extensive and open hash trade there a persistent problem.[27]
Denmark signed the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs on 30 March 1961 and ratified it on 15 September 1964.[28] It signed the Convention on Psychotropic Substances on 21 February 1971 and ratified it on 18 April 1975, the day it became a party to the Single Convention as amended by the 1972 Protocol.[29][30] It signed the 1988 Convention on 20 December 1988 and ratified it on 19 December 1991, declaring that it would not apply to the Faroe Islands and Greenland.[31]
Since 2004
An amendment adopted by the Folketing on 27 May 2004 added to the act the rule that a warning could generally not be given.[32] In Kim Kristian Moeller's account, possession for personal use went from a warning to an obligatory fine of 70 euros, which was quadrupled in 2007.[33] Asmussen writes that the stalls of Pusher Street were removed in a large police action in March 2004 and that 50 dealers and lookouts were arrested.[6] Moeller dates a police raid on the street to 16 May 2004, with 60 dealers and helpers arrested.[33] In the words of Esben Houborg and Kim Møller, Danish drug policy "has moved from a relatively liberal position to a stricter policy".[34]
In 2014 Copenhagen's city council adopted a "Copenhagen model" for legalised hash sales, which needed the Folketing's permission. A member's motion for a trial of legal hash was adopted by 43 votes to 7 on 19 September 2019.[35] On 1 July 2018 a limit was introduced that allows cannabis products containing at most 0.2 per cent THC to be made and sold.[36]
In November 2023 the Copenhagen police announced that they would clear the stalls of Pusher Street and stay in the street for the rest of the day, closing the hash trade.[37] From 1 January 2024 the police could designate zones with double penalties for dealing in and possessing illegal drugs.[38] On 6 April 2024 the cobblestones of Pusher Street were dug up, the first step of a plan, made in close cooperation with Christiania, to end the organised hash trade that had held the street for decades.[7]
Cultivation
Medical cannabis
A development scheme introduced on 1 January 2018 allows cannabis to be grown and handled in Denmark in order to develop cannabis fit for medical use.[39] The pilot scheme was extended to 31 December 2025.[40] The act of 2025 that made the scheme permanent applies to growing and manufacturing cannabis products within it, for export and for treating patients in Denmark.[5]
Seed lines and potency
The Derg Corra Collective calls Royal Dane a local strain of Denmark with a long history. It reproduced the line from seed of 2006 given by the seed producer Hybrids From Hell.[41] Sinsemilla seized by the Danish police from 2008 to 2012 had a mean THC content of about 12 per cent (35 samples), and plants yielded 46 grams each. K. Moeller and C. Lindholst contrasted the potency with the 6 to 8 per cent then assumed in Norway and Sweden.[42]
Preparations and consumption
The THC content of seized cannabis resin rose threefold, from a mean of 8.3 per cent in 2000 to 25.3 per cent in 2017, in 430 samples analysed by Danish forensic laboratories.[43] Tom Freeman and colleagues cite earlier work showing that resin collected in Denmark had the highest THC concentrations of all the European countries reporting to the drugs agency. In their trial of machine-learning classification, 30 of 47 resin samples collected in Denmark were classed as Dutch-type and 17 as Moroccan-type. The authors present the method as a proof of concept.[44]
Trade and commerce
Moeller and Lindholst wrote in 2014 that the Scandinavian markets had traditionally been supplied with resin trafficked from Morocco through Amsterdam and Copenhagen to Sweden and Norway. They added that sinsemilla grown at home was now held to make up more and more of them.[42] The councillors who moved the motion of 2019 put the turnover of the illegal hash market in Copenhagen at one to three billion kroner a year.[35]
The police seized 2,914 kilograms of hash in 2000, 8,956 kilograms in 2018, 3,315 kilograms in 2024 and 4,231 kilograms in 2025.[12] In the figures for 2024 reported to the European Union Drugs Agency, 3,315 kilograms of cannabis resin were seized in 14,751 seizures and 522 kilograms of herbal cannabis in 1,395.[13]
Legal status
Import, export, sale, purchase, supply, receipt, manufacture, processing and possession of the substances on list B are prohibited outside the uses the act permits.[26] The order defines cannabis as all above-ground parts of plants of the genus Cannabis from which the resin has not been removed; hemp seed and isolated hemp shives are excepted. Plants and preparations containing at most 0.2 per cent THC are not counted as euphoriants.[2] Such products may in principle be possessed lawfully.[3]
The prosecution service presumes possession to be for own use up to 10 grams of hash, 50 grams of marijuana and 100 grams of hemp plants. For offences after 1 July 2025 the fine for up to 9.9 grams of hash is 2,000 kroner for a first offence, 3,000 for a second and 4,000 for a third or later. Possession of 100 grams of hash or more is punished by imprisonment. A warning can also be given in repeat cases of possession of hash for own use, on the same guidelines as for a first offence.[3] The act of 2025 does not apply to the Faroe Islands and Greenland.[45]
Growing Regions
Landrace cannabis growing regions currently documented on the wiki: No growing regions documented yet.
Growing Areas
Landrace cannabis growing areas currently documented on the wiki: No growing areas documented yet.
Accessions
Map
List
| Accession ID | Name | Priority | Collected | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCC-DNK-UNK-0120060001 | 2006 DCC Royal Dane Reproduction |
Conservation status
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility lists 88 preserved specimens of Cannabis gathered in Denmark. Sixty-eight are sheets of the Natural History Museum of Denmark labelled only Dania (Denmark), without date or collector. The dated sheets run from 1859 and are held in Uppsala, Stockholm, Lund, Trondheim, San Francisco and elsewhere.[10]
Recent news
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See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Andresen, Stina Troldtoft; Karg, Sabine (2011). "Retting pits for textile fibre plants at Danish prehistoric sites dated between 800 b.c. and a.d. 1050". Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 20 (6): 517–526. doi:10.1007/s00334-011-0324-0.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Bekendtgørelse om euforiserende stoffer(BEK No. 405), 26 March 2026.Denmark.Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Narkotika". Anklagemyndighedens Vidensbase (in dansk). Anklagemyndigheden. 1 April 2026. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Lov om forsøgsordning med medicinsk cannabis(Lov No. 1668), 26 December 2017.Denmark.Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lov om ændring af lov om forsøgsordning med medicinsk cannabis og om ordning for dyrkning, fremstilling m.v. af medicinsk cannabis (Permanent ordning med medicinsk cannabis og genfremsættelse efter notifikation for Europa-Kommissionen)(Lov No. 439), 6 May 2025.Denmark.Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Asmussen, Vibeke (2007). "Danish cannabis policy in practice: the closing of 'Pusher Street' and the cannabis market in Copenhagen" (PDF). In Fountain, Jane; Korf, Dirk J. (eds.). Drugs in Society: European Perspectives. Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing. pp. 14–27.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "En måned efter lukningen af Pusher Street: "Du kan godt gå en tur og blive tilbudt at købe noget tjald"". TV 2 Kosmopol (in dansk). 2024. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Rasmussen, Peter (2005). "Mid- to late-Holocene land-use change and lake development at Dallund Sø, Denmark: vegetation and land-use history inferred from pollen data". The Holocene. 15 (8): 1116–1129. doi:10.1191/0959683605hl884rp.
- ↑ Rasmussen, Peter; Bradshaw, Emily G. (2005). "Mid- to late-Holocene land-use change and lake development at Dallund Sø, Denmark: study aims, natural and cultural setting, chronology and soil erosion history". The Holocene. 15 (8): 1105–1115. doi:10.1191/0959683605hl883rp.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Occurrence search: Cannabis, Denmark". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "Occurrence search: Cannabis sativa, Atlas Flora Danica". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 National Enhed for Særlig Kriminalitet. Beslaglæggelser af narkotika: Mængden af beslaglagt narkotika i Danmark 2025 (PDF) (Report) (in dansk). Rigspolitiet.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "European Drug Report 2026: annex tables". Lisbon: European Union Drugs Agency. 2026. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Nygaard-Christensen, Maj; Frank, Vibeke Asmussen (February 2019). Cannabis Regulation in Europe: Country Report Denmark (PDF) (Report). Transnational Institute.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Kalkar, Otto. "Hamp". Ordbog til det ældre danske Sprog (1300–1700) (in dansk). Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Det Statistiske Departement (1914). Arealets Benyttelse i Danmark den 15. Juli 1912 (Report). Statistiske Meddelelser, 4. række, 44. bind, 2. hæfte (in dansk). København: Bianco Lunos Bogtrykkeri.
- ↑ Kungl. Maj:t (17 February 1961). Kungl. Maj:ts proposition nr 49 år 1961 angående fortsatt stöd åt lin- och hamphanteringen, m. m. (PDF) (Report) (in svenska). Riksdagen.
- ↑ Deleuran, Lise C.; Flengmark, Poul K. (2005). "Yield Potential of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Cultivars in Denmark". Journal of Industrial Hemp. 10 (2): 19–31. doi:10.1300/J237v10n02_03.
- ↑ "Industrihamp". Landbrugsstyrelsen (in dansk). Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Landbrugsstyrelsen (26 June 2024). Opgørelse af afgrødefordeling 2024 (PDF) (Report) (in dansk).
- ↑ "Hampa". Svenska Akademiens ordbok (in svenska). Vol. 11. Svenska Akademien. 1930. col. H 225. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Paulli, Simon (1648). Flora Danica. Det er: Dansk Urtebog (in dansk). Kiøbenhafn: Melchior Martzan – via Project Runeberg.
- ↑ Pettersson, Bengt (1948). "Antonius Münchenbergs herbarium vivum". Botaniska Notiser (in svenska) (2): 223–269. Retrieved 10 October 2026.
- ↑ "Danish 19th Century Regional Floras". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen. doi:10.15468/aycpsg. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Justitsministeriet (12 December 1968). Forslag til Lov om ændring i borgerlig straffelov (Narkotikakriminalitet) (PDF) (Report) (in dansk). Folketingstidende. L 133, Folketingsåret 1968–69.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Bekendtgørelse af lov om euforiserende stoffer(LBK No. 1334), 9 December 2019.Denmark.Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 Bladt, Lene Elmegaard. "Fristaden Christiania 1971-". Danmarkshistorien (in dansk). Aarhus Universitet. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961". United Nations Treaty Collection. Chapter VI, 15. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
- ↑ "Convention on Psychotropic Substances". United Nations Treaty Collection. Chapter VI, 16. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
- ↑ "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, as amended by the Protocol amending the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961: status". United Nations Treaty Collection. United Nations. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
- ↑ "United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances". United Nations Treaty Collection. Chapter VI, 19. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
- ↑ Folketinget (27 May 2004). Forslag til lov om ændring af lov om euforiserende stoffer og straffuldbyrdelsesloven (Skærpet indsats mod narko m.v.), som vedtaget (PDF) (Report) (in dansk). Folketingstidende. L 175, Folketingsåret 2003–04.
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 Moeller, Kim Kristian (2009). "Police crackdown on Christiania in Copenhagen". Crime, Law and Social Change. 52 (4): 337–345. doi:10.1007/s10611-008-9185-6.
- ↑ Houborg, Esben; Møller, Kim (2021). "Danish Drug Policy: Between Repression and Harm Reduction". In Tham, Henrik (ed.). Retreat or Entrenchment? Drug Policies in the Nordic Countries at a Crossroads. Stockholm: Stockholm University Press. pp. 13–36. doi:10.16993/bbo.b. ISBN 9789176351635.
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 "Medlemsforslag om forsøg med legalisering af hash". Københavns Kommune (in dansk). Borgerrepræsentationen. 19 September 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "Ændringen af THC-grænsen fra 1. juli 2018". Lægemiddelstyrelsen (in dansk). Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "Københavns Politi lukker Pusher Street midlertidigt". Politi (in dansk). Københavns Politi. 20 November 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "Fra 1. januar 2024 får politiet nye værktøjer i kampen mod organiseret narkotikakriminalitet i Pusher Street". Justitsministeriet (in dansk). 19 December 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "Udviklingsordningen". Lægemiddelstyrelsen (in dansk). Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Lov om ændring af lov om forsøgsordning med medicinsk cannabis (Forlængelse af forsøgsordningen)(Lov No. 2392), 14 December 2021.Denmark.Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "Royal Dane". SeedFinder. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 Moeller, K.; Lindholst, C. (2014). "Sanctioning Large-Scale Domestic Cannabis Production – Potency, Yield, and Professionalism". Scandinavian Journal of Forensic Science. 20 (1): 20–27. doi:10.2478/sjfs-2014-0002.
- ↑ Rømer Thomsen, Kristine; Lindholst, Christian; Thylstrup, Birgitte; Kvamme, Sinikka; Reitzel, Lotte Ask; Worm-Leonhard, Martin; Englund, Amir; Freeman, Tom P.; Hesse, Morten (2019). "Changes in the composition of cannabis from 2000–2017 in Denmark: Analysis of confiscated samples of cannabis resin". Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. 27 (4): 402–411. doi:10.1037/pha0000303.
- ↑ Freeman, Tom P.; Beeching, Edward; Craft, Sam; et al. (2025). "Applying machine learning to international drug monitoring: classifying cannabis resin collected in Europe using cannabinoid concentrations". European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. 275 (2): 421–429. doi:10.1007/s00406-024-01816-w.
- ↑ Lov om ændring af lov om euforiserende stoffer (Skærpet indsats mod narkotikakriminalitet, herunder opioider)(Lov No. 724), 20 June 2025.Denmark.Retrieved 14 October 2026.