St. Petersburg

Law Enforcement

Police stops and searches were a serious concern. Dreadlocks or a Bob Marley shirt could attract attention. Estimates of what officers allegedly demanded ranged from US$300–500 to stories about US$10 or a bottle of cognac. Those were contradictory anecdotes. The older account dated a crackdown to 1998 and described a June 2000 restriction on media covering drug production or use. It also mentioned fears of forced tests and rough treatment.

The newer Marijuana Laws section distinguishes small amounts from larger quantities. The archived accounts described a different period.

Where to Buy Marijuana

Public squares and the rynoks, or markets, were possibilities. Stations and parks after dark had a worse reputation. Friends, clubs and sometimes taxi drivers were other leads. It helped to get past the small talk, and a favour often came with a shared smoke or a 10–15% markup.

Anashá might mean rough leaf rather than buds. Shishki was the word for flowers. Other terms were trava, gashish, ganja and hydroponics, with kurit or pokurit used for smoking. There was also a thumb-and-little-finger gesture for a smoke. Black hash sometimes looked like rubber, and cash up front was a gamble. Travellers remembered similar conversations as far apart as Tashkent and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

Marijuana Prices

• Hash: about US$100 for 5 g in one account, or US$8–25 for 1 g across different deals.
• Flower: roughly US$50–60 for an eighth-ounce. Some sellers measured by matchbox or stakan (glass) instead of weight.
• Foreign visitors were often quoted more. Some sellers preferred US dollars.

Types of Marijuana

Hash from Afghanistan or Central Asia was easier to find and generally better than the flower. Cheap anasha could be all stems, seeds and leaf. Good bud did turn up. Nearby countries were said to supply much of the flower in Moscow as well.

More Information

A plastic-bottle pipe called a plushka, or cannon, was commonplace. Joints often had tobacco. The hollow cardboard shell of a Belomorkanal papirosa cigarette was a cheap substitute for rolling paper. A stakan held several matchboxes’ worth and was loosely compared with a quarter-pound, though it was a volume measure.

St. Petersburg’s Neva waterways earned it the name “Venice of the North.” Its names came round from St. Petersburg, founded in 1703, to Petrograd in 1914, Leningrad in 1924 and back to St. Petersburg in 1991. People compared its bohemian feel with Moscow’s busier bar scene. Seasonal mushrooms and harder drugs were also mentioned. Foreigners’ bars Metro and Hollywood Nights came up in taxi stories that could turn uncomfortable without Russian. For a simpler night, beer was getting more fashionable than vodka, with drinks at places like the National Hunt quoted around $2.50–3.