Japanese reefer madness

Three Vietnamese men were arrested the other day for cultivating about 160 marijuana plants inside a house in Gunma prefecture:

Japanese authorities have been increasing their efforts to arrest marijuana farmers and smokers, so there has been a lot of marijuana-related stories in the press recently. Below are two fine examples:

Jun Okumura of GlobalTalk 21 reports on an incident in a Japanese courtroom:

The defendant was alleged to have gone on a two-day shoplifting spree, taking 229 manga comic books worth roughly 110,000 yen in order to repay loans and finance a marijuana habit. When the judge* asked, “Do you understand that marijuana is bad for your health?”, the defendant replied, “I don’t think it’s bad for my health. I did research on the Internet, and it said that marijuana was less harmful than tobacco and alcohol.” The judge responded to this in a voice that was audible to the three people who had come to watch the proceedings, “You’re being deceived, because you’re a fool (ばか).”

Media attention has focused on the judge’s harsh name-calling and not the fact that the defendant was pretty much correct about marijuana being less harmful that tobacco and alcohol. (The Asahi’s English language article doesn’t even mention the context in which the defendant claimed that marijuana was not bad for health.)

Meanwhile, the Inter-University Athletic Union of Kanto has decided to strip Nippon Sport Science University of its seed ranking in next year’s Hokkaido Ekiden road relay race because one student (a pole vaulter, not a runner) from the university was expelled for growing and using cannabis. The university had responded to the one student’s crime by indefinitely suspending its entire athletics club and closing its training camp for jumping athletes. Wrap that around your heads, readers.

Do you think marijuana is a very dangerous drug?

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19 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - April 19, 2009 at 7:24 am

Categories: General Japan Tags:

Joe

The War on Drugs is pointless
Ido

This drug is really not the worst, they should stop other kinds of drugs before that one.
http://aimai3.livejournal.com mai

why would they do it Japan?

o.o”
pixel_bomber

Making it legal would certainly be a boost in the current economic situation. They would have to tax it heavily like alcohol and cigarettes.
T13

It’s safer than alcohol and cigarettes. I would hate to see the government “try” regulate it though.
christopher

I hope the 49 people who voted ‘yes’ to the poll are just trolling…otherwise I am saddened.

LondonGaijin

Maybe those 49 people have been unfortunate enough to experience first-hand just what it can do to the mental health of someone.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Smoking marijuana doesn’t affect the mental health of individuals. Over-smoking marijuana does, but so does over-drinking alcohol – A psychological problem which we call alcoholism. But you can also argue that the root of the problem isn’t the substance itself but the obsessive personalities that abuse them, and if you take away one substance they’ll find another soon to replace it, or they’ll become sex addicts and contract venereal diseases, or they’ll become game addicts and suffer vitamin D deficiencies, or they’ll become workaholics who suffer deteriorating family ties, and the list goes on and on.

So if you’re going to make marijuana illegal on the grounds that there’s a possibility that people abuse it, we should also make games illegal, and sex, and overtime. Especially overtime.

LB

“But you can also argue that the root of the problem isn’t the substance itself but the obsessive personalities that abuse them”

You could, but that’s not the whole truth, now is it? Chemical dependency has real, physical causes – it is not just a psychological issue. Try telling any addict trying to quit that the withdrawal symptoms are “all in their head” – they’ll probably punch you.
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

But that was only half of what I was arguing. The other half is that marijuana is regulated while caffeine isn’t. And this is coming from a coffee-addict!

Legalizing marijuana would probably actually help society in more than just a boost to the economy. You’d also be saving taxes spent on fighting the “drug war”, and be able to control its quality through production regulations. (Although if it was Japan, they’d probably mislabel their product!)

Still, legal or not – I’m not going to smoke it, because have you seen the people who do?
LB

“(Although if it was Japan, they’d probably mislabel their product!)”

And if it was Korea or China, they’d probably be selling cabbage or, at best, low-quality hemp leaves as counterfeit “Sensimillian”…

roger

Looks like Japanese are not well informed.
LB

“Less harmful” is not the same thing as “harmless”. Anyone who thinks deliberately inhaling smoke, fumes, carbon monoxide and other combustion by-products is “harmless” is indeed a “fool”. Marijuana may arguably be lower in cancer-causing chemicals than tobacco, but marijuana smokers inhale deeper and hold the smoke in their lungs longer. THC may arguably be less addictive than nicotine, but it can still be addictive – I have known people who became addicted to pot.

It is one thing to make the argument that there is something inherently wrong with a government policy that legalizes and taxes two addictive, mood-altering or behavior-altering substances while outlawing others of no greater or lesser risk to one’s physical or mental health. However, that argument will not be well-served by a mistaken argument that marijuana is “harmless”. It is not.

Philip

And breathing Tokyo air has cancer-causing chemicals. THC is not physically addictive–only mentally. And just like what Alex said above, if you want to ban something that addictive mentally, well…. you’re going to have to ban a lot of shit. Drugs aren’t the only thing that’s “addictive, mood-altering or behavior-altering”.

Marijuana is harmless if it’s not abused. It actually has health benefits if used properly.

Yes, you are right. Saying Marijuana is harmless is a lie. But what isn’t 100% harmless. Water can be harmful if you drink too much. It’s called sodium deficiency (or drowning). Sugar. Fat. The sun. Sitting and typing. Fuck, even thinking can be harmful to your health.

You’re a fool for taking the word harmless so literally. Crossing the street is harmless–but the guy that got hit by a car will beg to differ.

LB

Water, sugar, fat – yes, in excess all are harmful. In the proper balances all are needed for life. The thing is, is there a “proper balance” or “proper level” of ammonia, nitric oxide, hydrogen cyanide, tar etc. that is needed for healthy life? Not that I know of.

Marijuana has “health benefits”, true – it can alleviate the symptoms of chemotherapy and slow the progress of glaucoma. Then again, the chemotherapy has “health benefits” in that it kills cancer cells before they kill you (if it works properly), but it is hardly “healthy”. I mean, you wouldn’t recommend to a friend who was cancer-free that they run out for a bout of chemo now would you? And given a choice between going blind in several months and increasing one’s risk of emphysema, some folks would probably take their chances with emphysema. It is risk management to these people – just like crossing the street, to use your example. That is a risky activity, which is why most folks don’t just dart out when the light turns green. Look around, evaluate your chances, and then go.

But for a healthy person, there is no health “benefit” to inhaling toxic fumes and hot gasses, and anyone with even a modicum of common sense can see that. If you choose to live in Tokyo you cannot do much about the quality of the atmosphere aside from choose not to make the part you inhale worse by adding toxins before putting it in your lungs. Smoking anything, be it tobacco, pot or banana peels is harmful, only a fool would hold otherwise.

Philip

Most people who smoke cigarettes smoke 20 every day for years. What about pot smokers: 1 – 2 joints shared amongst friends once or twice a week. Yes, it kills a few cells in your mouth and lungs. They regenerate! It takes a little bit more than that to cause harm.

You might burn your tongue trying to eat any hot meal; does that make it harmful? No. Your tongue heals–no harm done.

For everything we do, you can find at least one thing that makes it harmful and at least one thing that makes it healthy.

Running is harmful to your joints but good for your heart. Reading a book is healthy because it relaxes you, but reading is harmful because it can make you short-sighted. Pot is healthy because it can help release the stress and makes people happy, it’s harmful because it kills a few cells in your lungs and sometimes you burn your throat.

Roger

How were the Vietnamese caught in the first place?

And whats with Vietnamese and cultivating marihuana anyway? In Europe, Vietnamese gans/groups have been growing marihuana in a large scale and been getting caught here too. Just like in Japan they weere growing it in large scale in houses out in the country side. Do they work for the same boss? Is there some kind of international Vietnamese marihuana group who distribute marihuana in Europe and Japan?

In Amsterdam you can get marihuana anywehre but still the majority of people don’t smoke it on a regular basis because they think it is harmful.
nor-cal nikkei

You should have waited and ran this article today, 4-20
Kendra

When I lived in Japan, I was always scared to go looking for weed because of their severe drug penalties. However, even harder drugs like meth, heroin, and speed seemed to always be around at my school and with my japanese friends. DIdnt make much sense to me.

Japanese reefer madness

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