a small report from the drug liberal czech republic
A strange (For anywhere else in Europe besides Holland) incident happened yesterday.
I was sitting with my friends at a local “hospoda” (Czech for pub) chatting and drinking a couple of Gambrinus (a Czech brand of lager) when a police officer came in and ordred a beer. In his uniform… (I guess that is strange enough in most countries.)
He walked over to a table and chatted with one of the local guys and afterward he sat down with his friends. Not so strange maybe, but add the following into the scene:
- Several packages of large rolling paper where scattered around the table.
- Several boxes of cigarettes had pieces torn of to be rolled up as “filters”.
- A number of half cigarettes with that typical twist on the top so the tobacco would not fall out.
To me that is a big indication of what is going on, not to mention the fact that they where going outside for a smoke once in a while. (Remeber here in the Czech Republic there is no ban on smoking in pubs, bars and restaurants…)
A little bit later another local at the pub walked over to the table and discreetly received a small package of marijuana, not bothered at all with the police officer sitting half a meter away.
That how totally open the drug scene is here in Prague. And a lot of downtown bars and discoteques have clean horisontal mirrors in the toilets so you have a clean surface to split your cocaine on. So dope apparently isn’t a high priority here.
I guess the police concentrates on hunting people who actually hurt others or steal, instead of hunting pot and cannabis smokers or people buying sexual services. This liberalisation is going on all over Europe except in Sweden, reports Henrik Alexandersson. I guess the Swedish government will scream like hell when the Danes start opening coffe shops in Copenhagen, only 20 mimnutes by train from Swedens third city Malmö.
By the way, The Economist have a good article about The war on drugs and liberalisation of narcotic related laws.
4 Responses to “a small report from the drug liberal czech republic”
And me that thought it was odd enough to see railwaymen in uniform drink beer outside Praha hlavní nádraží…
By AndersH on Mar 18, 2009
I am from Czech republic… thing with policeman, in uniform!!, is totally bad, I wonder that he did it (And I’ve never seen policeman do that). I can’t imagine myself smoking marijuana on public (maybe its that I am 16 and I havn’t got experience
) or drinking alcohol with uniform (again, no drunk experience).
, but I promise, I’ve never seen any Czech policeman taking drugs.
But on a second side, marijuana is not cocaine, here is consuming of marijuana LEGAL, but not holding over 1 gram of THC. I am not marijuana supporter, but smoking marijuana isn’t direct way to criminal activity. I see what drugs like alcohol and cigarets does with people, and I think its bigger evil… too sad, that many young people are destructing their health, trough this poisons, when is known, that in many ways is marijuana safer.
After setting up prohibition of alcohol and cigarets, we could talk about stronger marijuana politic.
And what’s the drug (alc and cig are drugs too) scene in England? I think that policemans in England don’t dare this
By numero on Mar 27, 2009
First of all you seem to have misunderstood one thing. The policeman was having a beer not smoking grass…
(And thinking about it it might even have been a non alcoholic beer.)
But i agree a lot with your comment we need to think about all drugs and not giving our “old drugs” a free ride.
I used to live in Sweden so i am more familiar with the drug scene there. And it boils down to this:
A) No smoking indoors
B) People drink a lot on Fridays and Saturdays and in general almost nothing in the weekdays. Resulting in a lots of fights when people actually drink.
C) The “official” view on illegal drugs is that if you start smoking grass is that after a couple you will end up dead in a public toilet with a needle in your arm.
C) is a scandal and hurts more than it makes good. B) is just pure awful. And A) i have some understanding for.
By admin on Mar 27, 2009
Ohh teribly sorry, I mixed it
)
Yes I agree with you. We don’t have law for smoking, but restaurant when we’re going here has smoking indoor prohibited, it’s good, nobody distrubs you. I think, that smoking is prohibited on “public places”, and some concept about law, which prohibits smoking in pubs etc. was made, maybe offered after delegalization of smoking on all public places in UK, I’m not sure how it is about it now. I know this is our problem, but we have to wait to our politics for solving this.
By numero on Mar 27, 2009