Just to make things clear: despite a lot of people enjoying it, smoking weed is illegal in Serbia and police regularly makes arrests of anyone with a joint in his/hers pocket (or any other cannabis product for that matter). Still, that doesn’t much inhibit local marijuana counter-culture, best visible in many hip-hop rhymes and youngsters’ clothing.
The Zla-zla brand is a major part of that culture. They kicked off with importing rolling papers and then broadened their business to just about anything related to smoking, whether it’s tobacco or cannabis. Thus in their shtek (slang for a hidden repository) you will find grinders, pipes, hookahs and god knows what else one might need for getting a bit high.
Let us presume, however, that you do not enjoy puffing joints, or at least not in countries where you might end handcuffed to a table in a police station for doing it. What’s Zla shtek to you then?
Well, you should consider two groups of items. First, they have an excellent choice of T-shirts, hoodies etc done by local artists (primarily by the ingenious Linnch). Most are marijuana-themed but there are many with unconventional motives of Belgrade and its street culture. Second thing that comes to my mind are Zla-zla rolling papers, now proudly produced in Serbia, whose cardboard packaging is, again, vividly illustrated by local artists.
One of these pretty little things might just be your inexpensive, original and uber cool souvenir from Belgrade.
