Danes are used to buying from vehicles on the street – just think of the ubiquitous hot dog stands and the ice cream vans ringing their bells as they drive around residential areas in the evening. But a new type of mobile vending, drug-dealing from cars, is a growing problem near schools on the island of Funen, DR Nyheder reports.

The police in Odense have identified at least five cars that drive around selling cannabis and know that the problem also exists in other parts of Funen.

One of the schools affected is Sletten school in Otterup in the northern part of the island. Hans Jørgen Larsen, the headteacher of the school, doesn’t know the full extent of the problem.

“We know of seven pupils who smoke cannabis and are customers of the mobile sellers,” he said.

“But we don’t know if this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Difficult to stop
Larsen said the school took drug-use seriously. “As soon as we hear a rumour of cannabis among the pupils, we send the information on to the police,” he told DR.

Ebbe Krogaard of Funen Police explained that pupils needed to be convinced not to use the drug, and that parents needed to play a role if drug use was to cease.

According to him, targeting the sellers was difficult.

“We aren’t sending permanent patrols out. If we were to do that everywhere there’s drug dealing, then we’d be hanging around a lot of places,” he said

“Then there wouldn’t be any other police work being done on Funen.”