By Jeffrey Fleishman
LA Times Staff Writer
PRAGUE, Czech Republic — The man with the dancing eyebrows and the blurry tattoo stands in the chilled night and opens the barred gate to his apartment. A dog sleeps on the bed; a snapping turtle floats inside a glass coffee table. A fan hums and a hot light glows in the bathroom, where 11 marijuana plants ripple like a tiny field against the porcelain.
Sit, says J.X. Dolezal, a kind of Czech version of the late Hunter S. Thompson who has written the books "How to Take Drugs" and "Stoned County." He opens a box. There's a sprinkle across paper, a nimble roll of the fingers, a lick, a match strike, a curl of smoke — and a smile.
"Do you mind?" says Dolezal, his face slightly obscured as he exhales. "Excuse me if I don't offer you any. This marijuana's often too strong for my visitors. I had to resuscitate one guy for almost an hour once. You know, a higher percentage of people here grow their own marijuana than probably anywhere. It's typically Czech: a do-it-yourself nation."
The Czechs do like their weed. A 2005 report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that 22% of Czechs between 16 and 34 had smoked marijuana at least once during the previous year, the highest percentage in the European Union. The nation's cannabis culture is imbued with the whimsical ethos of the hippie movement: guys growing dope in fields, on balconies and in bathrooms, and sharing with friends.
The rest of the story is here.
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