Germany’s drug tourism problem: Vietnamese blamed for surge in drug-buying trips to Czech Republic

It seems to be a well-honed ritual: the fashionably dressed German woman in her mid-20s gets a manicure while her toddler keeps herself entertained with a tablet computer on the nail studio’s couch. Meanwhile, in a nearby storage room filled with gaudy goods of questionable origin – from counterfeit Barbie dolls and neo-Nazi T-shirts to unlicenced firecrackers and knuckle-dusters – the girl’s young father hands €400 (US$493) to a Vietnamese man in return for a thumb-size bag of off-white crystals. 

He and I, both Germans, with me pretending to be after a small bag of cannabis as cover, discuss the ease with which the drug deal is done. 

On the Czech Republic side of the 814km-long (506-mile-long) border with Germany, there are more than a dozen Vietnamese-run markets, and we are at one of them: Asia Dragon Bazar, the largest in the compact city of Cheb (population: 33,000). 

Though such markets are modest in size, with tens rather than hundreds of stalls, selling everything from cheap clothing and fake-label handbags to sports shoes and garden gnomes, it is believed that they have, in recent years, also become the neighbouring country’s main source of methamphetamine, or crystal meth.

A potent stimulant of the central nervous system when snorted, smoked or injected, crystal meth (more commonly referred to as ice in Hong Kong) creates a false sense of well-being and energy, and confidence verging on euphoria. Users belong to all sectors of society, from the unemployed to professionals such as lawyers, architects and doctors. 

According to the website of the Hong Kong Police Force, crystal meth users may develop severe depression, psychosis similar to schizophrenia, hallucinations, aggression, inability to sleep and kidney and lung disorders. Severe tooth decay and tooth loss, together known as “meth mouth”, is a visual sign of heavy and long-term addiction.