Widespread marijuana use in Japan

The U.S. government seems to think there is “widespread” marijuana use in Japan:

A U.S. government report on narcotics control Friday pointed to widespread marijuana use in Japan, which also is mentioned as one of the largest markets for methamphetamines in Asia.

The 2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, issued by the U.S. Department of State, said that “marijuana use is widespread” in Japan while “methamphetamine abuse remains the biggest challenge” to the country’s antinarcotics efforts.

It seems that this claim is based on the fact that the reported number of marijuana offenses in Japan hit an all-time high (-no pun intended-) in 2008. However, before you start thinking Japan is overflowing with stoners, you might want to check and see how it compares to other places with widespread marijuana use:

Place	Population	Annual # of reported marijuana offenses
Japan	127.7 million	3,832
California, USA	38.6 million	74,119
New York City, USA	8.3 million	39,700

[via FG]

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18 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - March 1, 2009 at 10:37 am

Categories: General Japan Tags:

http://bensescapefromny.blogspot.com Ben

The cops have also been making more busts as of late, from what I understand – ergo there is a rise in most types of crimes prosecuted, no?
Scott

I doubt usage actually jumped 16.8% like the prosecutions did. Asian countries tend to make sweeping police crackdowns on specific issues.
niels

I was wondering if you could add The Netherlands to that list.
Markus

This is not very useful indeed. The number of reported “offenses” is no way even near the actual number of users. Look at California … 74.000 offenses a year? Come on, they have entire regions where whole populations grow Cannabis and they have dispensaries and doctors that prescribe that stuff. I from my own experience in Germany can say that the figures that the police states are maybe 5-10% of what is actually going on. Let’s not forget … these are the numbers of people that are dumb or unlucky enough to get caught. The rest doesn’t even show up. And we should stop this demonization of Cannabis anyway. Show me the numbers for “Alcohol offenses” and this looks like a random problem.

klauscore

I agree with your points.

Also, my impression is that Japan is one of the most drug-free countries there is. There is just no culture of drug use amongst the middle class here, and in contrast to Europe or the US, it is still seriously socially frowned upon.
Cesar

so you’re saying that maybe because alcohol offenses are high, then it’s OK to have some thousands cannabis offenses? like one misdoing excuses the other?

or maybe you’re saying that, alcohol is not illegal, even though alcohol causes major damage to social and biological structures, and because of that marijuana, that causes major social and biological structural damage too shouldn’t be illegal? like one offense excuses the other?

or maybe you’re saying that, because you’re such a nice guy even though you’re a pothead then there is no reason why marijuana should be illegal?

I’m just trying to get to your point here, no offense intended

The Overthinker

First you need to demonstrate that MJ causes “major social and biological structural damage.”
Markus

Well no, the point is that we accept alcohol related offenses, accidents and deaths as a “byproduct” of the positive cultural aspects that the consumption of the substance offers to large portions of the population. On the other hand the health impacts of Cannabis and the risk of criminal offenses in a legalized system is much lower than that of alcohol. I’m not saying we should tolerate criminal offenses in the strictest sense but I’m wondering why there is a double standard that is never addressed.

Alcohol leads people to be aggressive, obnoxious and practically painless. This combination leads to fights, abuse, drunk driving etc. I’ve never witnessed one Cannabis related fight in my life … I’ve never heard of anyone that robbed people in the street because he needed a joint to deal with his withdrawal symptoms.

All I’m saying is that there are soo many disgustingly drunk people out there that do all kinds of bad stuff and never have a problem with it because society is used to drunks and accepts that kind of behavior as a sideeffect of the culture. On the other hand there are millions of potheads that never hurt anyone and yet they are criminalized merely because the substance has a bad (albeit false) reputation. No drunk is convicted for drinking alcohol in our societies, they’re criminalized for the bad things they do when they’re irresponsibly drunk. Potheads don’t do anything wrong and merely because they possess or consume the substance they are criminals. That’s ridiculously unreflected.

Btw. what these statistics count as “cannabis offenses” are mostly minor possession charges that would completely vanish if it was legal.

fk

There is lots of drugs among young people in Tokyo. Marihuana and stronger substances.
Jeff

An important reason why these statistics can’t be compared very well is that in Japan, charges are often not filed for first time offenders and where the detained person admits wrongdoing. In Japan, actually prosecuting most small crimes like theft or drug use is a much more discretionary activity than in the U.S.

There’s too much uncertain about these numbers to really go into it, but it’s entirely likely that the number of reported offenses correlates to with some statistic that relates to prosecutions rather than arrests. You just can’t tell from these numbers, and if it’s true, then the numbers are almost certainly extremely under-inclusive.
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Surf Branch

OMG that number for California is SO low, they’re way off the mark.
Level3

Cops in Cali have much more important problems to handle than going after potheads who can just claim it’s for medical purposes anyway and get off.

In many States arresting someone for pot is just the most convenient excuse if you can’t arrest them for being an ass, or chaining oneself to a tree or some other crunchie bullshit.

Pretty sure you also can’t arrest a small scale grower of quality shit for not paying taxes on his crop, nor arrest him for posing a fire hazard with grow-lights wired up like a Christmas tree, but you can arrest him for having it.

Police in Japan SHOULD also have more important things to do instead of going after pot, but the pot growers here aren’t part of the bribery and amakudari for cops system yet, it works for some yaks and pachinko.
Once they start paying bribes and giving well-paid non-jobs to 60-year-old retired cops, the J cops will find another target.
Roger

In xenophobic Japan, the cops are strict and they love going after foreigners. Instead of going after the real criminals, the Yakuza or someone higher up on the social scale the cops would rather stop a random foreigner riding his bicycle and then check his pockets. The cops in Japan are dirty.

The Overthinker

“The cops in Japan are dirty.”

Well, Ohara 大原部長 is always trying to get Ryotsu 両津巡査長 to take more baths, and to clean up his dorm room….
Surfer

Roger Dodger,

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude

you need to put your pipe down, man, you’re getting paranoid!

Altair

FREE THE HERB MAN!
jeb

Israel Threatens Retaliatio…
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,502704,00.html

Widespread marijuana use in Japan

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