Official Policy

The Czech Republic updated its drug laws for 2010. For an American, it's hard to believe such leniency exists anywhere in the galaxy. But I would argue the laws are strict exactly where they are needed. This link goes to a Prague Post article describing the new policy. Look at this:

Starting in 2010, possessing the following amounts of drugs is no longer a criminal offense.
Marijuana 15 grams or less (15 GRAMS!!! *personal note to mark my astonishment. Street value, that's over $200 of weed. In Amsterdam, only 5 grams or less has been decriminalized. And I had thought that amount was plenty.)
Heroin 1.5 grams or less
Cocaine 1 gram or less
Methamphetamine 2 grams or less
Amphetamine 2 grams or less
Ecstasy 4 tablets or less
Hashish 5 grams or less
Hallucinogenic mushrooms 40 pieces or less
LSD 5 tablets or less

I have a hard time imagining the States decriminalizing even a couple of grams of marijuana. 15 grams is some serious weight. And then look at all these other drugs which have been decriminalized, in not-so-small amounts! I consider myself fairly liberal--or maybe the word is conservative: however you want to describe someone who believes an individual has the right to act as he sees fit, so long as he doesn't hurt others--and even I would hesitate to decriminalize methamphetamine.

Just imagine having the legal amount of all these drugs in a backpack. If a cop stopped you, yes, he could possibly give you some legal hassle, but it's written into the law that he has the option to issue nothing more than a warning. Just be polite, and you're fine. Act like a jerk, and yeah, he could probably lay some tickets on you and make the whole encounter expensive and time consuming. So, be nice, which is a good rule of thumb anyway. But, just think: he could look through your bag, maybe give you a hard time, but you would have absolutely no fear of jail-time. I think holding such amounts in the States, especially of LSD, would get you life in prison. Just look at the pharmacopeia you can legally carry! A fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff. Or Prague, for that matter.

So one would be tempted to think the Czech Republic is an anything goes country. For an American, it's true that the freedom here is astounding, almost dizzying, but the Czechs are smart where it counts.

There is no drug as dangerous as alcohol, though in the States we've been trained to think of drugs as Evil and alcohol as ok: pools, girls, barbecues, etc. In the Czech Republic, every driver who is stopped by the police is automatically given a breathalyzer test. Which is rational, and much stricter than I could ever imagine in the States. Sure, they have the right to test you in the States, but I personally have never seen it done. Yet I think it's safe to assume that Budweiser is responsible for more deaths through auto accidents and violence than any of these drugs. Not to mention how alcohol degrades so many bodily systems--but that is a personal choice that harms no one else.

I don't mean to say that the CR is down on alcohol; the beer is fantastic and cheap, and everyone seems to drink a good amount of it.

Anyway, this is the cognitive dissonance I love about living in a different culture. Reading this article would've meant nothing to me had I never left the States. It's something shocking how differently people can decide to handle things, and in such unexpected ways. Get pulled over in Prague with that loaded backpack, and you got nothing to fear. But you will be given a breathalyzer, and there ain't no sweet-talking around it.