Tehran’s Booming Marijuana Trade

There is a neighborhood in Tehran, near Khaneye Honarmandan (Artists’ House and Park complex), that young Tehranis are calling Little Amsterdam for its booming and open marijuana market. Once this sort of activity in the city was underground, but these days it is increasingly casual, freely discussed and traded. I strolled the area recently and came across Amin, a young music student, who knows it well and agrees it is coming to resemble Amsterdam, which he knows, by the day. With a smile he warns me against getting high.

Although Iran is widely known in the West for addiction rates to harder drugs like crystal meth and heroin, marijuana and its derivatives are increasingly popular, despite their illegality.

A democratic drug

Iranian marijuana users span a broad range of society, young and old, men and women, educated and illiterate alike are drawn to the drug.

Many have used it just once, like Mostafa, who tried it when he was in college, but many have adopted pot smoking as part of everyday life. There are typical pot devotees like Mohammad, whose background picture on Instagram is a cannabis plant or the 24-years art student Iman, who says with enthusiasm, “It’s a great high, my creativity really spikes.”

For the Iranian marijuana users I spoke to, cannabis, as in the eyes of many around the world, is not so much an addictive drug, but a mood enhancer much like alcohol. Amin says his pot use seems to extend however he is already feeling.

“God save anybody from the fear, anger and depression that it can bring about,” he says. “Once I did not sleep for 30 hours because I was fearing death.”

Because Iranian drug prevention authorities are so focused on education the public against addiction to harder substances, public education around marijuana’s potential concerns is scant.

The transaction

Solmaz, a young woman who works at shop near the bustling marijuana trade neighbourhood, isn’t into smoking pot, but knows a fair amount about dealing because of the time she spends in the area. “A buyer can have a wrapped packet in his hand within three to 30 minutes,” she says. The average price of a packet is 25,000 tomans (less than $10), and each is enough for one big joint that is enough for three people, she says.

A brand called the “Afghan Thousand” is currently the most popular, due to its low price, while other brands such as “Warlock” and “Super Haze” are more expensive.

Vahid, who has been smoking grass for the past two years, believes “the more expensive it is, the better you feel.” He buys grass from everywhere but now he patronizes the Artists’ Park more than other areas.

Khoshi (“Joy”) is the pseudonym for one of the sellers whose number is stored on Vahid’s mobile phone. He is a young man who accepts orders provided you have been introduced by a mutual acquaintance, and delivers to your doorstep within 30 minutes.

Some sellers are active 24 hours a day. In June police shut off a stretch of Tehran’s Zamin Avenue due to some complaints by local residents about marijuana dealers, and authorities searched some passing cars. But a few well-known sellers were patrolling the street in their own cars looking for customers.

The route to a Lexus

Ramin, 30,  who lives in a high-rise along the street remembers a metallic-finish Peugeot driving around until about midnight. “It was enough for the car to just drive past you,” he says. “The driver was high himself and the smell of pot smoke would hit you like a slap in the face.”

According to Ramin greenhouse cultivation of pot is now very common. Apparently, he says, a great deal can be harvested with only 70 flowerpots. He mentions a grower in the northern city of Amol whose financial situation has improved dramatically. "I heard from friends that his business is booming and he could afford to buy a Lexus.”

Pourya grows his pot in his apartment and on weekend nights he lays out his harvest on the table so that guests can try it. A warm place and a full-spectrum light are the two basic necessities for his growing pot. Pourya started the venture out of curiosity and now derives all his joy from the row of short and tall flowerpots lined alongside the window. The leaves are sharp and one has to tend to them patiently until they flower. He says that his 70-sqm apartment has become a stomping ground for friends who want to have fun for a few hours. The leftovers he sells around the park.

The anti-drug laws of the Islamic Republic ban cultivation of drug plants and impose heavy fines on those caught producing. According to Article 2 of this law the punishment for growing poppy and cannabis and producing illegal drugs ranges from a cash fine to lashes, prison sentences and even hanging.

But judging by the capital’s vibrant pot trade that now, the authorities are not particularly concerned about marijuana. But these threats have not been effective. Solmaz says she has never seen police try to round up or dissuade the dealers who work around  Khaneye Honarmanan. If they were to start trying now, it would be a challenge, as Tehranis are now as keen on marijuana as the citizens of New York, Cairo, and of course, Amsterdam. 

Arezoo Moradi