Although Vietnam has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, a few pieces of information are missing/need updating. So let's have a look at the availability of narcotic substances in Vietnam in terms of legality and availability.
Most legal/available
As with most countries the two narcotic substances most available and legal are alcohol and tobacco. Since both are legal in most jurisdictions I have no qualms in discussing the cost and supply of such substances.
The local beer is known as ‘bia hoi’ and costs around 25c a glass. It’s available in large taverns that also sell local food, as well as on street corners in tourist areas. It’s pretty watery, but by no means the worst draught beer you’ve ever tasted. There are local beers available in cans/bottles costing around 50c per can/bottle. Again, they are generic lager type beers which lack any real character other than their generic nature. Imported beer is widely available ranging from $1-$5 in stores and no more than $10 in a bar, depending on where or what you are drinking.
A pack of cigarettes cost around $1 but be warned, a lot of brands are Chinese fakes. Particularly American or British brands. It’s better to go for Korean or Japanese brands. The local brands are incredibly strong and best avoided. The locals also smoke a local tobacco called ‘thuoc lao’ through a device similar to a bong. It is unclear if this is purely tobacco, but it gives you a slight head rush after smoking one, before a massive coughing fit and laughter from any Viet near you.
Less legal/available – let’s talk pharmacies
There are a number of products available in Vietnamese pharmacies that would not be sold in another country without a prescription, if at all. The chances of purchasing these pharmaceuticals depends on the pharmacist and substance in question. So, in order of availability…
Terpin-codein – available in all pharmacists with various quantities of the two substances in question – Terpin and Codeine (ranging from 3.9mg – 15mg for Codeine and 100-200mg for Terpin). The pills also have various make ups, some are in gelcaps, some are smaller, some are different colours, some have a shiny outer coating whilst others have a mat finish. Obviously you are not purchasing these pills for their intended use, as a cough remedy, but to extract the codeine from the terpin. Since codeine is water soluble and terpin isn’t (and relatively easy to remove) then you want to aim to find the pills which most easily dissolve. Therefore avoid pills; with some sort of coating, are liquid rather than solid and have a low codeine to terpin ratio (as you have more pills to crush up/dissolve/filter). The process of extraction is well known, and available on some other thread so I won’t go through it here. One last point, pharmacists seem to have little problem selling you insane amounts of these pills, considering you only need 2 a day for their intended use, purchasing 400 tablets at a time would send off alarm bells if I were a pharmacist. But since there is a lack of checks and balances or punishment for such behavior the process continues due to a profit motive. However, recently a few brands which have high doses of codeine (10mg) have disappeared or been replaced with brands that cannot be purified due to their make up or casing.
Intensifiers – things such as dextromethophan and promethazine used with codeine (by Southern Hip Hop artists at least) are also widely available.
There are also a number of antihistamines which can be used in place of benzodiazapines, such as diphenhydramine which are available everywhere if you can’t find anything stronger.
As we’re on the subject of sleeping pills we might as well go through the other downers available legally/semi-legally. If you go into a pharmacist and tell them you can’t sleep they will usually try to sell you Rotundin, a kind of herbal supplement, or Meletonin pills, which harmonise your sleep cycles.
In certain areas a bit of persistence will add a bit more strength. Your best bet is to try Valium/Diazapam, although it is becoming harder to get, a lot of pharmacists stock Zopiclone, which might not be Valium, but it’s getting there. There are a few types of Valium around, the main one being Seduxen, if you find a shady pharmacist who is not playing ball, mention this name, it might help. Luckily a lot of the Valium stocks are located in the Old Quarter (where the tourists are), there used to be more around the expat areas of town, but the authorities/pharmacists got pissed off with so many people asking for Valium all the time so the practice has been all but stopped.
With Valium you have to have a lot of pharmacists say no before you find somewhere, or know someone who knows an address. Other downers do exist, namely Xanex/Alprazolam and Bromazepam. To my knowledge I know of only two establishments (1 for each) that have these substances, and are willing to sell them, after two years living here.
OK, so now we’re done with the pharmacies let’s get on with something slightly harder.
Weed – it’s all mild ‘bush weed’, hard packed and shipped from somewhere in Thailand or Myanmar one would presume. A gram will cost around $10, but prices drop significantly if you buy more. This can be anywhere from 5 grams to a couple of kilos (no kidding, the dealers in Vietnam seem to be dealing with permission, so if a kid they’ve just met asks them for a few kilos of weed it doesn’t look suspect to them). There are a few other varieties around, but not much. As with how to get it, same with every country! Go find the bar with Bob Marley painted on the side and talk to the sleepy guy with the dreadlocks.
A lot of the guys who sell weed might sell other things on the side. The main thing is crystal meth, it is incredibly expensive ($100 per gram) and incredibly pure and usually takes a few pick ups of weed before you can get it organised. It’s not very popular, since most of the expats/tourists have seen the adverts and know the risk and the price means that not many locals can afford it (a gram is an average month’s salary). There are also pills available as well, these are usually sold as ‘ecstasy’ but can be anything really, usually out of the dealers not being that knowledgeable rather than out of any malice. Be careful, check pillreports, test them if you can, or go to a source you know, who you trust and who has tried them themselves. I say this because there have been some bad batches that have made people have temporary blindness, blackouts – that sort of thing.
Ecstasy and other ‘party drugs’ are best found by going to clubs and getting talking. Unlike other countries you’re not going to find dealers in clubs, and what there is is scarce, so it’s usually the most connected who get the limited supply – not the guy fresh off the plane. Despite the aforementioned weed and odd pill (ecstasy or otherwise), there really isn’t that much going about! There are a few trips, usually LSD, mushrooms or some sort of RC you can easily put on a blotter. These make there way into the market by individuals who smuggle them into the country themselves due to the ease of concealment (in the case of blotters). As such they are generally really hard to get hold of, reserved for friends and family etc.
Lastly – there’s always the vet!
It’s an old trick, print off a veterinary degree and go around various clinics bullshitting you’re working for some charity helping sick dogs out in blah blah province. If they don’t have the supply of whatever you want there, they’ll likely have a phone number/address of a supplier.
The obvious substance here is ketamine, but there are a plethora of other substances used in veterinary medicine which are used recreationally in humans. Here’s a handy wiki…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_veterinary_drugs
Although you might have a bit of difficulty getting a source of morphine from a veterinary supply store, the worst answer you will get is “no”. The owners of such stores, as with pharmacists, are generally money motivated. The police will not be called and, if you make a prat out of yourself are some of the most corrupt in the world and easy to bribe.
Notable Absences
Despite being part of The Golden Triangle there is a distinct lack of heroin or anything like it in Vietnam, not my thing, but my friend’s into it and was always trying to get something but the only thing you can really get is some questionable opium sold to you outside a club by a motorbike taxi driver at 2am. This may be because opium production has shifted geographically, but this has caused an increase in the production of Yaba. Again, this is absent in Vietnam, only clean crystal meth here. For quality smack it’s best to go to Cambodia, for Yaba go to Laos or you can get these things in Thailand but it’s more underground so you will be buying from police/gangsters or being abused by them more than you would ordering from the Happy Menus of Vang Vieng or scoring some China white off the well nice taxi driver on the drive from your airport to the guesthouse.
About the strongest thing I do these days though is an effervescent 500mg paracetamol/30mg codeine pill. Age