While the world is full of cannabis enthusiasts, not every corner of this planet is equally accommodating of the 420 friendly lifestyle. The United States itself is undergoing something of a Drug War revival today even as cannabis science and the industry have evolved into a multibillion dollar enterprise with imminent federal rescheduling on the horizon.
While the Trump administration has been busy making grandiose plans to move the needle on federal cannabis policy reform, over 200,000 cannabis-related arrests were reported across the country in 2024 with many more since then and multi-decade sentences still being handed out for cannabis crimes.
In Spain, the jovial atmosphere of the Spannabis exhibition and friendly confines of cannabis social clubs do not always extend into traditional Spanish society beyond, where neighbors are known to call the authorities on people smoking a joint on their balconies and police will body search you on the spot with significant fines imposed for possession.
These examples of a polarized attitude towards the plant are becoming further entrenched on either side of the ideological divide around cannabis cultivation, possession and consumption on the global stage. Though many countries are warming up to various measures of cannabis decriminalization, legalization and regulation, an authoritarian and heavy-handed approach to prohibition is still the law of the land in more parts of the world than it is not.
Though weed has been legalized either medically or recreationally across some 40 countries, many parts of the world still make an example of those who are found in possession – or worse, accused of smuggling – our beloved plant, with around 10 of them still potentially enacting the death penalty in some cannabis related cases. As a blanket warning to traveling cannabis enthusiasts, heightened levels of due diligence and in many cases outright abstinence are the best approach to guaranteeing your safety when traveling in regions where cannabis crimes are harshly punished.
It’s also generally not a great idea to bring your own hash pen or edibles stash when traveling internationally to some parts of the world – several high profile detentions of athletes and celebrities in recent years are only the ones to make headlines, and by no means the full story on how often people actually incur significant legal actions against them in places where you definitely don’t want to provoke the wrath of the authorities on the basis of suspected drug crimes.
Just ask DJ Esco, the rapper Future’s DJ who spent 56 nights in a Dubai jail for allegedly bringing weed into the country, or even A-list star and weed champion Wiz Khalifa, who was recently sentenced in absentia to 9 months in a Romanian jail after smoking a joint on stage at a performance there.
Many unwitting tourists have found out the hard way that even when they come across a street dealer offering cannabis, there is a chance that it’s part of a racket involving police who swoop out of the shadows after the transaction to confiscate the herb as well as a hefty bribe to stay out of jail – or worse, haul you straight to be locked up abroad.
Yet against this backdrop of extreme intolerance and growing authoritarianism, cannabis culture continues to defy the prohibition even in the unlikeliest of places.
I’ve written about this topic for Beard Bros in the past, detailing some of my escapades from two decades of traveling the world and securing the cannabis bag in various unlikely habitats from the majestic mountains of southern China to the harsh and intolerant – both in geographic feature and government attitude – desert expanses of Arabia with many other latitudes and longitudes in between.
As opposed to the cannabis friendly urban climates of places like Los Angeles and Amsterdam or stoner Mecca beach towns from Nicaragua to Sri Lanka, some of my recent coordinates offered no safe harbor for the cannabis consumer. But even in the direst of social circumstances, there are signs of underground cannabis culture if you know where to look for them.
The failproof way to connect with a supply in an intolerant part of the world is to develop your social network before you ever set foot in the country. The ‘friend of a friend network’ is alive and well, and often provides immediate access in scenarios where traditional measures fail.
It’s best practice not to communicate about these types of things over the internet or via text message; just leave the electronics out of it and go back to the basics. Meet for coffee and casually inquire about local attitudes towards cannabis use among the younger generation; steer the conversation in the right direction, but generally let them offer, don’t ask. In the event you don’t know anyone directly or through a friend, there are ‘wink wink’ signs of stoner culture often hiding in plain sight.
For example, on a recent visit to Sub-Saharan Africa I noticed a ‘Reggae Island’ listed on Google Maps in the lake region where I was staying. Sure enough, a boat trip around the lake the following day led to a local guide mentioning that we were passing by a Rastafarian village on the bluffs above the shoreline. An innocent inquiry to the guide led to an introduction to some local cultivators and a chance to sample the crop.
Live music venues are a great place to develop rapport with locals who may quickly turn from strangers to stoner confidants. I wouldn’t come in too hot and heavy asking random people upfront for herb, but you do you. The best bet is to hang out and strike up conversations with people, which is a great approach to making friends while traveling regardless of whether or not they have weed. After hanging out for a while, you may notice the tell-tale signs of the presence of cannabis; the smell is often the first dead giveaway, but in some places cannabis use is almost entirely restricted to private residences due to the possibility of draconian punishment if caught.
For example, in the Middle East, you’ll likely never encounter people smoking hash anywhere in public – considering cannabis crimes can still carry multiyear prison sentences or even death by beheading if the charge is serious enough, this is totally understandable. Yet in private domiciles, it can be almost ubiquitous to find young people infusing their hookahs with hash or rolling up ‘Sarukhs’ – a local name for hash spliffs that translates literally to ‘missile. I’ve even been told that the legend of the flying carpet came from people smoking hash and resting on the ornately patterned carpets famous across Arabia, and in my experience there’s definitely something to this folklore.
Anywhere an artist counterculture exists is another great spot to find what you’re after; music festivals, stand up comedy nights, and even specialty coffee shops tend to draw globalized bohemian audiences out of the traditional, conservative cultures in which they stubbornly persist. If all else fails, look for the guy in the Bob Marley shirt.
In Istanbul, I was on my way to a concert by a young folk music phenom when out of nowhere a local friend of a friend produced a weed oil pen and foisted it upon me, reading my mind. I was disappointed when my first two rips on the pen produced no vapor; it seemed like it hadn’t been used in a while and was defunct. The third, monstrous hit that produced a full night of intense inebriation proved that it did in fact work as designed. Turkish folk music was never so entrancing.
Surf towns and hostels are great ways to find what you’re looking for. Though weed is incredibly accessible in the Mexican state of Oaxaca now and probably always has been, I didn’t have any contacts there on my first visit in 2010. The dry spell didn’t last but two hours or so after the owner of the boutique B&B we checked into (this was before Airbnb) approached me while I lay splayed out in a hammock and tossed a gargantuan bag of weed onto my lap while stating that it was included in the price of the room if I wanted to partake.
In New Zealand when I was working at a green shell mussel factory on the South Island on a ‘Working Holiday Visa’ in 2014, a few weeks into daily banter the foreman at my factory pulled me aside and let me know he had ounces of the best weed on the island available. It became an exercise in professional development to take him up on the offer, as I was soon promoted to a better position at the factory after we connected over our mutual interest in the plant.
These sourcing techniques and anecdotes are not meant to encourage anyone to be disrespectful of the culture they are a guest in while traveling; but in many cases, cannabis culture predates the current government and the laws around the plant, giving it deeper roots and a legitimate claim to supporting a more authentic expression of the people and place than the newer culture built on top of it.
Connecting with a cannabis community can offer a deeper lens for understanding the ancient motifs, artistic sensibilities, and social customs of the region. I’m of a sound disposition that it’s essential to respect the culture of the place you’re visiting – and in some cases, that extends to outlaw cannabis culture.
And always be really, really careful – even if that means foregoing cannabis entirely. Today’s global cannabis culture was built by outlaws, and in much of the world these liberty minded rogues are the last bastion of hope for the plant to have any kind of future under increasingly authoritarian rule.
Dennis Walker is a satirist and multimedia producer who covers the global mushroom and cannabis spaces. He is best known as the Founder of the Mycopreneur platform. He has hosted over 200 mushroom entrepreneurs from 30+ countries on the Mycopreneur Podcast and regularly appears at conferences and festivals around the world as an emcee, keynote speaker, and panelist. Mycopreneur has been featured in Forbes, Rolling Stone, High Times, and numerous other globally prolific media platforms.
