Reykjavik

Law Enforcement

In 2009 it felt as though police focused on growers and smugglers more than users. People talked about refusing a search unless under arrest, but also thought refusal itself could make you look suspicious.

The figures people quoted were 35,000 krónur, then about US$550, for a gram and three months in prison for around half a kilo to a kilo. Those weren’t dependable thresholds. The prison joke was that they didn’t need fences because “you ain’t getting off the island.” There was a story about somebody walking through an unfenced gate in 1983, getting caught two or three hours later and having three to six months added.

Where to Buy Marijuana

Weed wasn’t public. You didn’t see somebody light up on a corner. In a bar you might get talking to someone in their twenties about whether Iceland had many smokers or a drug problem. Let the conversation happen. If they weren’t interested, drop it.

Deals moved to mobile phones. Some visitors tried meeting Icelandic stoners on Facebook before going. Eirik found it easier to make friends at a bar or club and get invited back for a private smoke. Much of the weed people found was homegrown.

Marijuana Prices

Ordinary hash was 1,500–2,000 krónur a gram, around US$23–31 then, and “about as effective as dried pond scum.” Good hash ran 2,500–3,000 and was rare. Weed had stayed near 3,000 for seven years, roughly US$47 a gram at that exchange rate.

Another quote was 3,000 krónur (US$26) for hash and 3,500 (US$30) for weed. An earlier nightlife quote had hash at 1,500 (US$20), with Purple Haze and Moroccan names and passable quality. A pub beer was 350–600 krónur, about US$4–8.

Types of Marijuana

Hash slang was marri for low grade, polli or “French paper” for middling, and ríger, from Danish for smoke, or svartur afghi, black Afghani, for the good stuff.

“It's funny that 80% of the grass is called White Widow when only about 5% of growers know what they're growing. They're just happy it's growing!” Those percentages are the writer's playful exaggeration, not survey results.

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A city remembered for its drinking

“Amsterdam is for smokers; Reykjavík is for drinkers.” Iceland’s isolation and strict laws made pot scarcer. Mark, an American exchange student, saw no dope at school. “Everybody drank and they did it in the extreme.”

At country dances people brought a bottle of vodka, sometimes two. The Stone thought drinking and cigarettes were Iceland’s favorite pastimes. Björk put it bluntly: “We don’t sip drink, we fucking drink it.” There’s Brennivín, a potato schnapps, and illicitly brewed Landi, whose name was explained as somewhere between “patriot” and “fellow countryman.”

Mark thought Icelanders spoke English more readily when drunk. A boy of about 12 wanted to try his English on an American visitor, which helped Mark persuade him not to sleep drunk on a sidewalk in below-freezing weather.

Summer nights and late gatherings

Around midnight on weekends the center filled up and kept going until 8 a.m., said Villhelm. Astro was at Austurstræti 22. Bjorgvin’s picks were The Dubliner at Hafnarstræti 4, Gaukur á Stöng at Tryggvagata 22, Vínbarinn on Kirkjustræti behind Parliament and Thomsen at Hafnarstræti 17 for a younger crowd.

Iceland’s hot springs and geysers rise out of volcanic country near the Arctic Circle. Reykjavík was home to 164,000 of 277,000 Icelanders at the time. The third Thursday in April was the first day of summer. June 17 meant independence parades and dancing. On June 24, tradition said to roll in the dew for a cure. August brought Þjóðhátíð Vestmannaeyjar and Verslunarmannahelgi, with outdoor events and plenty of drinking.

Food, heritage and the 2009 backdrop

Whale blubber, ram’s testicles, fermented shark and sheep heads with the eyes in: even the munchies might not get you through that menu. Before the war people were poor and wasted nothing, the story went. They lived in turf homes, then some moved into wartime huts left by Americans. Iceland went on to rank highly for income per head and press freedom. The food kept a link to the past. “Our food was served on Fear Factor and no one was able to eat it. We laughed our asses off.”

March 2009 saw five big grows, 500-plus plants, busted in a month. A criminologist linked growing to the recession and trouble getting foreign currency to buy imported hash. An earlier U.S. State Department account cited a “drug free” goal for 2002 and seizures of well over a hundred plants a year.