Principal of International School of the Sacred Heart (ISSH) arrested for drug smuggling
Scandal has hit the International School of the Sacred Heart (ISSH):
The Japanese media is reporting the arrest of Shirley Lane, Principal of the ISSH Kindergarten/Junior School. Last month, Narita airport customs found 5.9 grams of marijuana hidden in a package of clothing addressed to Lane. Shirley and her husband Thomas have admitted that the marijuana was purchased in the United States and shipped it to Japan for Thomas’ personal use. A police search of their home in Japan found traces of marijuana. Both of them have been arrested and charged with violations of Japan’s drug laws.
Update: Mainichi now has an English language article up.
Shirley Lane, 59, principal of the Kindergarten and Junior School of the international school in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, and her 62-year-old husband Thomas, both of U.S. nationality, are accused of violating the Cannabis Control Law. Metropolitan Police Department investigators are currently questioning the couple over allegations that the husband and wife used the drug together.
The Lanes smuggled a box containing 5.9 grams of marijuana via international mail on Sept. 25, investigators said. Both have reportedly admitted to the allegations. Investigators quoted Shirley as saying that she had asked her husband to bring marijuana back. The husband was also quoted as telling investigators that he had bought the marijuana from a drug dealer in Florida for 100 dollars and brought it back for his own use.
MPD investigators raided the principal’s office and the couple’s home and confiscated small amounts of the illegal drug.
Wikipedia still lists Lane as a principal, but the ISSH homepage appears to have been edited to remove her name and photograph from the list of prinicipals.
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Wow, 6 WHOLE grams, they caught some real badass druggies there.
I’m sure all the salarymen as they stumble home in their nightly drunken stupor will approve of the arrest.
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Catholics finally have a scandal they could defend that will make the world a better place, (instead of the usual war, pedophilia)
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I wouldn’t doubt some would sympathize with this woman. They probably reason, it was only a small quantity, she didn’t harm anyone, Japanese laws are ‘archaic’, in ‘my’ country this would be no big deal, “unfairly targeting” non Japanese, and so on and so forth (hope I covered everything).
I, on the other hand, have no sympathies. If a person breaks a law of a country, then he/she must pay the consequences. What happens in other countries is absolutely irrelevant. They should know better.
I do give her credit though for being truthful instead of playing the ‘foreigner card,’ where a person blames it on the usual “it was planted on me, I’m innocent” routine.
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Granted, she did say that she got it from a foreigner.
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Cannabis is a sacred herb to the religion of Shinto, and was also used and praised by ancient Emperors, Zen poets and Buddhist monks.
Cannabis (& Shinto) culture was suppressed and banned by US occupying forces after World War II, and today most Japanese don’t realize that “marijuana” is the same plant as cannabis.
Just wanted to give a different perspective
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“If a person breaks a law of a country, then he/she must pay the consequences. What happens in other countries is absolutely irrelevant. They should know better.”
So how do you feel about the reporters who were recently detained in North Korea?
Or about the Icelandic woman who was jailed in the US for having an expired tourist visa?
その態度は何もについて深くに考えてないことを示してるじゃないか？
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Also, do you encourage the jailing of homosexuals in Uganda? Or of Atheists in Saudi Arabia?
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its good to see that the US isn’t the only country that has frivolous drug laws.
I am a student at sacred heart and this is no big deal. This happens all the time. Why make such a big fuss. she made a mistake. every one does. The only thing is, she made a BIG mistake and she got caught. There must be a good reason for this.
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Kudos for being honest but he and she should know better that japanese drug laws are very strict. Nothing wrong smoking a little joint there and there, but just don’t do it in Japan, it’s a shitstorm.
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I bet she was one of those foreigners that the celebrities always buy drugs from.
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Catholics know how to party!
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Here we go
, I understand that violating the law is bad thing, but this mass media hysteria is just to much.
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And what good will six whole grams do you anyway?
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I know this lady as my daughter is at the ISSH.
She is a superb Principal and it is a real shame she has got caught this way.
I expect the school will have to dismiss her.
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Are the students primarily foreign, or do a lot of Japanese students attend too?
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I don’t know the exact proportions but there are a lot of Japanese students. The three types of children are;
1. diplomatic, banking or executive children (pure blood foreigners, if I can use that term without causing offence)
2. “Haafu” children like my daughter.
3. pure Japanese with whose parents want them to have an international education.
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Are you kidding? My girls are also at ISSH. This woman is a fruit loop. From her first day of addressing the parents and talking about how important it is to learn the recorder for 20 minutes. You have got to be joking. Every interaction I had with her was just as bad. I had been making jokes from the beginning about her going off to smoke some pot in her office, never thought it would turn out to be true.
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$100 for 5.9 grams? What the fuck is going on in Florida?
These people ruined their lives for 5.9 grams of weed.. The stupidity.
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Yeah, $100 is rather steep. Here you pay < 15 euro for that amount.
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I’m torn between feeling sorry for this couple (I’ve got a lot of respect for their honesty too) and wondering why they couldn’t just hold out until they went back to the States, knowing how the Japanese feel about marijuana (Go ni ireba…) Sigh…too bad they had to find it, and I wonder who grassed on them? (Sorry!)
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The Americans aren’t too keen on it either. What they should have done was establish contacts within Japan.
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Leave it to the gaijin to get busted with drugs. Yeah, that helps our image a whole lot.
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I’m a raging pothead, but I would never, ever, EVER transport anything internationally – mail or otherwise. I especially wouldn’t bring it to a country with laws that strict.
At least in the US there’s a possibility you’ll get a fine and probation for something like this. In Japan, it seems a lot harsher than most places, like smoking a joint is equivalent to importing a kilo of heroin. I’m probably wrong, but I still wouldn’t chance it.
That being said, if (big if here) Japan ever legalizes, I’m moving the next day…
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DUMBASS… if you’re going to send drugs to yourself via post, you should atleast learn to send it to a made up name, so that if they find it you’ve got some defence.
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I attend ISSH and we’ve been asked not to talk to the press–if ever there still are–lingering about in the schools. I don’t know her for she is not my principal, nor have I ever talked to her. What I do know is that my parents are very disappointed in the school and Miss Lane. I used to be proud of wearing the uniform but now that everyone knows about it and it’s all over the damn news, I don’t know what to think.
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Ya know what “K”, she also poops, picks her nose and farts in bed. None of those (include the recreational use of pot) has anything to do with her professional performance as a school principle.
She could drink herself stupid morning, noon, and night and Japan wouldn’t say anything about it. Puff a joint once and awhile (and with a measly 6 grams – it’s obviously she and her husband are not big time pot heads) and it’s a big freaking deal.
Japans entire view on pot is stone age at best – especially when you look at the wide spread alcohol abuse that is blindly tolerated with nary a second thought.
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Regarding your “drink herself stupid morning, noon, and night and Japan wouldn’t say anything about it”.
Japan did have a problem with the late Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa being intoxicated at the G7 news conference.
There are limits. Even with alcohol.
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His drunkenness was a career-ender when the public found out about it. But, to be fair, it should also be noted that story apparently only made the news in Japan because it had already been reported by the international media.
Press club reporters had known about Nakagawa’s heavy drinking for years, but they didn’t report it because they thought it was a private issue. (And reporting about embarrassing things like that would hurt their relationship with a potential news source.)
I’ve seen a few media reports about the badness of public drunkeness in Shibuya and at beaches, but in general I’d say that marijuana use gets far more coverage as a “dangerous” drug.
It’s a shame that full grown adults in responsible positions do such stupid things, and what more, some even sympathize with these idiots. They deserve no respect from my perspective.
They should be role models for children. Your parents have every reason to be dissappointed. It’s because they care about you and your education. So stay cool and don’t let the negative hype get you.
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Shouldn’t parents also be role models for their children. How easy it is to point a stick.
To err is part of being human.
Yes it was careless, ill-conceived and all the rest, but to indicate that educators ‘must’ be more-than-human, once again deflects the responsibility from parents and caregivers onto educators as the ’sole’ provider and benchmark for children.
It takes a village to bring up a child – not just ’saintly’ (sic) teachers.
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Your writing style reminds me of someone.
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Principals of elementary schools should not be smuggling drugs across international borders. Full stop. I have no idea how anyone could see this differently.
By the way, smuggling drugs (even small amounts) into a country is going to be a significant crime most anywhere. Don’t confuse possession with smuggling – the latter is a much more serious crime.
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Why is it perfectly ok to show their faces but then put a mosaic over the faces of Japanese people who are arrested?
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Haven’t you seen the Japanese faces who are arrested on Japanese TV?
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I heard many Japanese are participating in the activity to legalize planting and smoking marijuana. They try to persuade people by giving a reason that marijuana is not addictive thus it’s harmless than tabacco. But a principal of a school arrested for smuggling of 5.9 grams of marijuana? Are they addicted? Could someone please tell me the truth from your own experience of smoking marijuana? No betrayal, seriously.
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Marijuana can be addictive.
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Cannabis can be addictive, but it’s not super high on the addiction scale, topped by both tobacco and alcohol. For more, look here.
I have been smoking cannabis for 14 years now. I have been able to hold a job and am now attending university. I have a couple of friends who are doing post-doctorates and still smoke, many more who are graduate students or have their masters and either smoke or did smoke weed. I also know a few who have been jobless for years who smoke. Cannabis can have detrimental effects, it can trigger a psychosis, if you are allready disposed for having one that is. In that respect, cannabis is no different from alcohol.
I hope this helped.
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Rune, thank you.
According to the article by Nutt et al., cannabis indeed has lower potential than tobacco and alcohol with regard to physical harm and dependence. However, it seems to depend on each individuals, especially for person who is predisposed to psychosis, it can increase the risk.
The possibility of triggering off a psychosis is bad for me, since I already have a tendency of mental disorder. Fortunately, I have no interest on cannabis. Also, I can’t drink alcohol, already abstained smoking cigarettes, just a bit addicted to caffeine, no gambling, and nothing else, so I don’t mind so much if all drugs, including tobacco and alcohol, are banned. I’m boring person for some.
It is regretful that I could not have a chance for betrayal. You had not indicated that you are living in Japan, Rune.
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I smoked pot every day in college, and then stopped abruptly when I left. I’d say I was in a bad mood sometimes in the morning for the first week, but besides that there were no withdrawal symptoms.
If marijuana is addictive it’s psychological- like a “I need to be high to wash the dishes” kind of thing- it’s not physical. I’ve tried quitting cigarettes, and that is much harder. I am not a heavy drinker but I’ve heard that quitting drinking is much harder also.
I think that having such harsh rules against marijuana makes people have a biased view of it as being a serious drug, like speed, which was given out by the Japanese government during WWII. Marijuana is just an herb that makes you sit around and watch movies. “Taima”, which is hemp, with low THC levels, was burned during the Obon festival in Japan a long time ago, but has since been banned. The production of hemp is highly regulated, but exists in Japan for things like symbolic ropes used in “Shinto” shrines.
Speed (methamphetamine), or “shabu” is a synthetic chemical that was used to make people work day and night to produce Zeros and battleships. My grandfather talked about being encouraged to use it, which he refused, but there are still many people who are addicted to it. I doubt that the imperial government would have encouraged marijuana use, because it would have reduced their ability to wage a war- people would have been sitting around writing haiku and eating ramen. I don’t think speed and cannabis are the same thing, and cannabis should not be illegal anywhere.
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シャブ中ごときが人に物を教えるとはとんだお笑いだよね。
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the truth is commendable, how about some truth about cannabis from the government?, the pharmaceutical co’s?
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@info – “how about some truth about cannabis from the government?”
New to the planet eh? Except for parts of Europe, no modern government dares divulge the “truth” about cannabis – it would break their money train which is fueled by their lies. Without drugs to blame, there would be WAY less need for cops, law enforcement agencies, lawyers, judges, jails, prisons, and all of those people/businesses that live off (leech) supplying those agencies with support and services.
If the government actually cared about you (or “the children”) it would have long ago outlawed alcohol and nicotine – two of the biggest poisons consumed by humans. If they cared even more – they’d outlaw McDonalds and Twinkies.
The whole Anti-Drug scheme is just an easy way for the governments to fund the entire legal/justice system without ever having to beg for money – all they do is cry “think of the children” and brain dead citizens who have long ago drank the “drugs are bad – they must be – that’s what the government told me to think” koolaid nod their heads and reach for their wallets.
It’s a shame the planet is once again turning into a few haves and a whole slew of have not sheeple who blindly follow without thought or true knowledge.
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As someone stated above, the harvesting of cannabis was banned in Japan by the US occupying forces in 1948, mainly to implement their growing textile industry among other things.
Until then, there were hemp fields everywhere and nobody gave a damn because it was like that since Japanese history began.
My grandfather told me that in the pre-war era some students would go to Tama river after school to have a light puff laying by the river bed and people who saw this would just snicker at them (the domestic hemp has very low THC).
The Shinto religion upholds cannabis as the most holy of hollies and the Emperor must wear hemp for important rituals. There are places and important shrines with names that imply hemp everywhere. While it is banned to have possession and to harvest without a special license, there is no law to enforce against the consumption of cannabis in Japan.
If cannabis becomes unregulated today it would most likely become a corrupt industry like everything else, since there is no cultural integrity anymore.
Going back to the case of this principal, she simply broke the law thinking she could get away. Very smart for a school principal.
Oh, and another thing the GHQ really had there hand on is Dentsu. The virtual monopoly for Japanese mass-media sponsor.
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On the plus side, the kindergarten class was pretty mellow, nap time was never a problem, and they all enthusiastically partook of their milk and munchies.
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What else has been going on at ISSH? The headmistress must take some responsibility; it is her ship. This is the tip of the iceberg from what I hear.
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Sad to hear the news
I am a graduate from ISSH and sad to hear that this happen.
Disappointed in this lady. She should be punished to the fullest extend and never be involved in any school system. Her action is not excusable. She tarnished the name of ISSH. She should know if she wants drugs stay in the USA.
Shame on her and shame on her husband.
I will not forgive her for what she has done to our school.
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That is an absurd comment. Such a perspective respects the law for the fact that it is a law, for no other reason. If we were to apply such a perspective universally, it would damn civil disobedience as “not excusable.” Are we to really believe that unjust laws should be obeyed unthinkingly? This mindset is the dark side of Japanese deference, and enables both abuses and atrocities. This woman will go to jail, while Tojo remains enshrined at Yasukuni. Shame on them? Shame on Japan.
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This is a truely absurd comment. Are you really a Gaijin or pretending to be so for some purposes?
Dear JapanProbe moderators, I found a suspicious troll, flamer, hater, or racist!
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This is why the US and the UK should have never allowed their Meiji-era rights to have sovereign courts in Japan displaced.
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You’re actually condoning extraterritoriality? Sigh, if you read up history, you should know that these “sovereign courts” excused the worst “Gaijin” behaviors. Rapes, thefts, assaults, you name it both in China and in Japan. Well in terms of drugs at the time, UK was the opium dealer king so obviously it was beneficial to uphold their citizen’s law for their own benefit. Japan has a fairly decent legal system as of now, controversial at times, but which system isn’t? I would have figured that extraterritoriality is something someone should not be proud of but I guess I’m wrong.
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Cute.
Only half a step away from “We civilized those barbarians! If they can’t handle it, let’s take it back!”
You’re already at the “We never should have” stage any ways.
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