This way for illegal drugs, please

located:	Germany
editor:	Gurmeet Singh

Berlin may have accidentally taken one step towards legalising drugs this week, with the manager of a popular city park providing designated areas for drug dealers to operate.

Görlitzer Park in Kreuzberg is a well-known drug hotspot. The dealers can be seen at all times of day, and are normally very friendly, asking Berliners if they'd like to buy something. Generally speaking, when rejected, they remain polite and do not hassle park-goers. Police have been well-aware of dealers in city parks for years, and have thus far adopted a low-key approach, allowing dealers to continue their trade, but interfering (and sometimes aggressively so) if the dealers did not curb trading when police made routine checks.

But now, since police and authorities have been unable to stop dealers altogether, the park manager has provided zones for the dealers to sell within. These are simply crudely spray-painted pink rectangles on the path.

The backlash against the move has been swift and predictable. Bild, Germany's most pearl-clutching tabloid, screamed "now Berlin really has gone crazy!". While the AfD has predictably seen the move as a crazy, lefty, crime-loving scheme.

But the move itself speaks volumes about the lack of leadership when it comes to matters regarding refugee and foreigner integration in Germany. It is a bottom-up move, carried out by an everyday citizen that highlights just how badly authorities have failed.

"Cengiz Demirci (the park manager) said the pink zones would mean that visitors to the park – known locally as Görli – were no longer intimidated by groups of dealers, typically men operating in gangs, who crowd the entrance. This method has purely practical reasoning behind it,” Demirci told local radio station RBB. “It’s not that we’re legalising the selling of drugs." He added.

Demirci said a much more effective solution would be if authorities gave the dealers work permits. The majority of them are asylum seekers who are not allowed to work while waiting for their claims to be processed. He added: “If they did that then 90 percent of them would stop what they’re doing immediately.”

Drugs on this level are far from being Scarface-esque. These are drugs sold for small amounts of money by a majority of people who are disenfranchised and poor as a result of no other work being available to them. The authorities have the power to hurry their work permit applications along, and they have the power to manage the drug situation in Berlin and Germany in a sensible way. All it takes is political will.

Call to Action

Berliners: raise your voice against racism and in support of tolerance