Barcelona

Law Enforcement

“The cops in Barça are a joke.”

“I had a knife pulled on me in front of my house. I ran away and found the police. In perfect Spanish, I told them the person had a knife and wouldn’t let me into my apartment. They kicked me out of their car and drove off. I ended up having a footrace to my own door.”

“What law enforcement?” During the day it could feel as though they were hiding. At night they seemed to camp out in busy squares like Plaça Reial. Around La Rambla, you could see plenty of them.

At the time, people distinguished personal use from public consumption, which could draw an administrative fine, and from growing for sale or selling, which could lead to prison. You’d hear two ounces quoted as a dividing line and that Spanish prison terms weren’t as severe as U.S. ones. Those were broad claims about the law. See Marijuana Laws for the legal overview.

Where to Buy Marijuana

La Rambla, the surrounding squares, the waterfront and Barceloneta all had street offers. What you got, and how safe you felt getting it, depended on where you went and who you met.

The infamous Ramblas! Walk past the shops and a couple of Metro stops and you could meet people offering weed. An eyebrow raised and you’d be halfway down to the Metro, making the deal on the way up the other escalator. Sounds sketchy, but it worked for me. The beer sellers around the top of La Rambla were a better bet for hash in my experience. The waterfront never worked for me.

Down by the waterfront

“Hash was very easy to obtain in Barcelona. I walked down Las Ramblas to the waterfront and around the benches. During the day, the people I asked often turned out to be dealers themselves. The hash was good, but I couldn’t find any pot worth buying while I was there.

“At night, people walked around saying ‘hash, marijuana,’ so I could just sit and wait. I liked the waterfront because I didn’t see police there, but it was busy enough to feel safe. People also let me inspect what they had. When I asked about pot, some were already smoking and offered me a hit—but, as I said, I thought it was very bad.

“Around Las Ramblas and the plazas, there were usually police somewhere nearby, and sellers kept trying to lure me into alleyways. I found it shady, even though it was easy to find something. Once, in Plaça Reial, I got someone to drop the price of some hash from €30 to €5. I suspected some of the sellers had connections to the police. STAY AWAY.”

Barceloneta

“You can easily find hash on Las Ramblas and the surrounding squares, especially at night. It’s a little sketchy, though, and I didn’t think the product was as good there. At Barceloneta, the hash was abundant and good. I asked people selling chips, soda, and beer; they either had some or knew someone close by, and usually let me inspect it.

“As for marijuana, it was pretty terrible. I tried buying it once or twice on the Ramblas, but didn’t go through with it—it didn’t even smell like bud. My recommendation was to stick with hash.”

Marijuana Prices

At the time, a “domino-sized” piece was a common way to describe a brick of hash:

• €20 for a domino-sized piece of hash. The first offer was €30 or €40. They’d come down quickly but, in my experience, stopped at €20.
• €20 for a bag of chopped-up weed. No seeds, nothing special, but it did get me high.
• €25–30 for a domino-sized brick of hash. It lasted more than a week.
• Spanish outdoor weed: US$9–20 per gram. The domestic stuff was usually too dry, with a rough THC estimate of 6–12%.
• Moroccan hash: US$10–25 per gram.

“I smoke at least a half of premium weed a week in the U.S., and this stuff lasted me over a week.” The unit for “a half” is unclear.

“The first prices they give you are really high. Usually, I could get it for about half.”

Types of Marijuana

Hash made the better impression. Dark, chocolate-colored Moroccan hash and golden double-zero were worth looking out for. Some sellers would slice the dark stuff open, and buyers took the wet interior as a sign of potency.

“It was my first summer smoking hash, although I smoke ridiculous amounts of ganja back in the States. I didn’t find the really good hash the way it had been described to me, but I was never disappointed with what I bought. They tried to charge a high price at first; most times, I was able to cut it in half.”

“I tried rolling hash with tobacco, but the tobacco burned long before the hash was used up. I ended up using an apple bong, got really, really high, and made the hash last a LONG TIME!”

More Information

Barcelona’s street life

Barcelona’s street life runs downhill from Passeig de Gràcia through Plaça de Catalunya and down La Rambla to the old harbor, where Columbus points toward the Americas. It’s polished and expensive at the top, more middle-class around the square, and cheaper and livelier by the monument.

Barcelona figures from the period: 487 km², 1.5 million residents, Spain, Central European Time (GMT/UTC+1), area code 93.

Halfway down La Rambla, branch toward Plaça Reial and Carrer dels Escudellers. The square’s porticoes used to be a conspicuous part of the soft-drug scene that visitors encountered. As police paid more attention, sellers spread out into neighboring streets.

Jamboree for jazz, Los Tarantos for flamenco and Karma for the disco. Elsewhere there was Razzmatazz, formerly Zeleste, one of the big names at the time.

Techno coming from a club that charged at the door was often a sign you were near the scene. In Spain the music went by bakalao. You heard about pills at some gay discos. Locals were more likely to have a phone number for someone they knew and arrange to meet at a private address. On the street, things could get riskier after dark.

Ciutat Vella and a 1999 airport case

Gerard Capdevila of the Guardia Urbana worked in Ciutat Vella as a liaison for foreign visitors detained or affected by street crime. He had 12 years of experience at the time. Police spokespeople warned about scams around the Casc Antic, especially Plaça de Sant Agustí Vell and Carrer dels Carders. The warnings also carried sweeping allegations about African immigrants, which are no basis for judging individual people.

Police were said to make a judgment about personal use versus selling. Some accounts cited 80 grams as a line used by courts and claimed 50–80 grams or slightly more could lead to confiscation and an administrative fine. They also cited four to six years for sales, seven or more where minors were introduced, and over ten for full-time trafficking. These were period accounts, not thresholds or penalties to rely on today.

Police spokespeople couldn’t recall recent cases, at the time, of foreigners including Americans jailed for personal use. In 1999, however, they arrested Austrian visitor Roland Hirscher, 54, at the airport with eight hash tablets totaling 1,900 grams. He hadn’t hidden them. He said a cheap offer from “a certain Mohammed, on a Barcelona street I can’t remember” made him stock up because he used about 50 grams a day.

The first court accepted that explanation and acquitted him. The prosecutor appealed, and the regional court treated it as trafficking. The reported outcome was four years in prison and a fine of more than US$5,000.

Words visitors heard

A joint is a porro para fumar. A little piece of hash is una china. In Catalan, a smaller bar, roughly 100 grams or less in this account, was una barreta. Marijuana could be maría or mierda. With so much hash coming from Morocco, you also heard grifa, kif and kosto.

For legendary beach raves, there’s Ibiza in spring and summer. Back in Barcelona, keep to yourself, don’t get into public disputes with sellers, and remember that going alone can make a sketchy situation worse.