Warsaw

Warsaw has grown well beyond the wartime images of ghettos and bombed-out buildings. A few pot seeds seem to have taken root along the way. It doesn’t have Prague’s reputation as a party town, but there’s plenty going on in this former Eastern Bloc city even with strict drug laws.

Anka, a local student, tried to fit as many as three events into a weekend. “I often smoke hash and marijuana—they're as common as beer in the company I keep,” she said. Her description was of her own circle, not a measure of the whole city's habits.

Cannabis and connections

Richard, an American living in Warsaw, saw plants in suburban hedges that looked and smelled suspiciously like marijuana. For Niall from Scotland, it turned up wherever locals hung out: “School, clubs, friends, neighbourhoods.”

Homegrown skunk and Orange could be good and ran about US$8–10 a gram or US$65 for ten. Hash was harder to find because it mostly came from abroad. Black Afghan hash was about US$10–12 a gram if you could find it.

The university district and the Palace of Culture near the main station were places you might meet someone who’d share a hit. Hemmy liked the big tent on the east side of the palace: cheap beer, great music and a drumming scene. He joked that if the cops came, he’d ditch his “cigarette” and blame somebody in the park.

Markets and late-night food

At Stadion Dziesięciolecia, fake antiques and piles of junk rubbed shoulders with more surprising goods. A Danish visitor counted more than 10,000 stalls and said they’d even sold weapons. People came from across Eastern Europe, especially the former Soviet republics, with clothes, food, caviar, music, tools and electrical gear.

For munchies, there were Vietnamese stalls around Plac Konstytucji with much the same takeout from one stand to the next. At night, watch for pickpockets around the main station and the red-light district. Drew from the U.S. wandered into a row of huts between Zielna and Marszałkowska that looked to him like a market for sex or arms. “I’ve come across the sex industry in many places, but nothing like this.”

Finding the way home

Cul de Sac at Foksal 2 had leather couches and a mellow, faintly decadent feel. Ground Zero at Wspólna 62 was a domed former bomb shelter with surprisingly good Mexican food next door at Warsaw Tortilla Factory. Local Radzio warned that clubs might turn away under-18s or anyone in sportswear.

Keep your street name with you for the taxi. “He got a little drunk and was in no fit state to tell the taxi driver his address,” said an American traveling with her brother. “Big sis had to step in and get us back to some unpronounceable street with an amazing combination of ‘szcs’ in the name.”

At the time, parliament had tightened Poland’s formerly liberal drug rules and banned possession even in small personal amounts. The U.S. State Department warned of jail and heavy fines for possession, use or dealing. The newer Marijuana Laws section also covers the later introduction of prescription access, which is separate from recreational possession.